Angel in the TARDIS
by DemigodDaughterOfTheTARDIS
Summary: Sequel to "Codename: Angel". Now that the Doctor knows who the Angel is, the fun can really begin! But how will he manage to keep one of the most desired creatures in the universe safe - especially when it's his and River's daughter.
1. The Reunion

A/N~ Hello my darlings! I hope that you are all excited for the next installment in the Angel series! So, just as a general disclaimer, the only thing that I own for this series is the Angel, aka Catherine Amelia Delta Rose Song.

Also, I know that in Codename: Angel, it was stated that Catherine was 7 when the Doctor found her, but I am changing that. She was four when he found her. It just makes it so that I can do a lot more things with her, and use a lot more stories from my own experiences.

8888

As I kissed her forehead once more, I made her a promise, one that I swore to keep throughout all of time and space.

"I promise you, my sweet angel girl, that I will always be there for you. No matter what, I will always catch you, and I will always find you."

Jackson Kinch's P.O.V.

Professor Song's class was hard, there was no doubt about that.

But everyone loved it anyways.

I had been one of her students before taking the post as her teaching assistant.

She was a tough teacher, but she wasn't strict. Unlike most teachers, she was engaging, and always had her classes undivided attention. But no matter what, she always had time for students, even if they weren't hers. Everyone knew that if you had a problem, you could always talk to Professor Song about it, without having to worry about any fallout.

She was understanding if a student had a problem with their computer systems, but may the gods have mercy on your soul if you didn't do your work because you were too lazy to.

She was the teacher that you either wanted to be like, or wanted to be with - or sometimes even both.

But no one knew a thing about her. We knew that she was a professor of archaeology, of course, and that she was an alumna of Luna University, but not much else. Everyone knew that she was a major flirt, even more so than normal for the 51st century. We knew that she had published several archeological studies, and went on several digs a year, but we didn't know anything about _her._

Most professors would tell you at least one thing about themselves on the first day - their favorite food, the name of their pet, something. But not Professor Song.

Even I didn't know that much about her, and I'd been her teaching assistant for 2 years now.

Until today, that is.

The professor was about 45 minutes into today's lecture: "The Emergence of Extraterrestrial Life in 21st Century Earth society," when there was a loud crash out in the hall. Some of the students glanced over for just a moment, to make sure that everything was okay, before turning their attention back to the professor. She hadn't even flinched at the noise, choosing instead to continue with her lecture as if nothing had happened.

"- Torchwood Three, led by the enigmatic Captain Jack Harkness, was one of the foremost figures behind the human races' revelation as to the existence of alien life, as well as one of its most vigilant guardians. Along with Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, one of the founding members of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce; his daughter, Kate Stewart, chief scientific officer of UNIT; and Miss Sarah Jane Smith, who -" Professor Song was cut off by the door of the lecture hall banging open. Every head whirled around, wanting to see who would be idiotic enough to interrupt the Professor.

A young looking man had stumbled through the door, and I nearly laughed at how ridiculous he looked. He was wearing trousers which were too short and held up by red suspenders, a button down shirt with a bow tie around his neck, and a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows.

Professor Song didn't even look surprised. If anything, she looked irritated, and sighed before addressing the class.  
"Class, this is my husband, Doctor Song." she smiled in amusement when she introduced him, and I could hear excited whispering from many of the girls, as well as sounds of disappointment from many of the boys, and some of the girls. I was slightly disappointed about this turn of events as well, if I was being honest. I had been flirting with her for a while now, and I had been thrilled that she was flirting back. And now to find out that she was married?

"And I know," she continued smoothly. "That he wouldn't be interrupting my class unless it was a life or death situation, or else it might become one. Isn't that right, sweetie?" that last word was punctuated by a deadly glare in his direction.

Anyone else would have at least worried if they had received that look. The first time I was on the receiving end of that look, I actually took a few steps back.

Not this "Doctor Song," though. He just smiled at her like everything was finally right in the world.

"River Song." he stated, bounding towards the podium and kissing her like his life depended on it.

That was met with a resounding slap.

"What are you going on about, sweetie?" she demanded.

He just laughed, a gleeful, infectious sound. "I found her."

Now I had no idea as to what that could have possibly meant, but apparently the Professor did.

She turned pale, before whispering, "What?"

"Professor?" I said, stepping forward anxiously. "Is there anything the matter?"

She turned to look at me, but it was almost like she wasn't really seeing me.

She raised her voice then, addressing the class. "Class dismissed."

Nobody moved, they were all frozen in shock. This was unheard of. Professor Song was the type to keep the class for a few extra minutes, not to let them go early.

"Well?" she snapped, once she realized that they were still sitting there. "I said class dismissed. Get out, go!"

They still sat there, dumbfounded, until Doctor Song intervened. "Oi, you heard her! Class dismissed!"

That got everyone moving. There was a flurry of activity as people collected their things, but they weren't fast enough.

"Daddy?"

Everyone froze as a little girl's voice called out from the back of the room. Her voice was crisp and clear as a bell, and had a melodic quality to it. It was practically enchanting.

Doctor Song answered, not taking his eyes off of the Professor. "Yes, sweetheart?"

All eyes turned to the back of the lecture hall to look at a little girl standing there.

Hushed whispers came from all directions as she took a step into the room, which soon grew louder as people realized what she was wearing.

After all, we were archaeologists. We knew when we were looking at an artifact, and that child was _wearing_ one.

Her blonde hair was pulled back tightly, so that it was completely smooth until erupting into a mass of curls. Very familiar curls…

Her dress was deep green and bustled in the back, with a slightly lighter shade of green silk wrapping around the waist and tying into a bow.

I was so caught up in the horror of seeing a _child_ wearing a priceless artifact that I hadn't even realized that she had continued talking.

"Daddy, did you find my mummy?"

 _Mummy?_ I thought incredulously, snapping my head to look at Professor Song. She was pale and shaking, with tears threatening to spill over.

Doctor Song nodded slightly, looking right at the Professor as he spoke. "Yes. Yes, I found your Mummy, Catherine."

Then there was a blur of green and yellow as the little girl tore across the hall, running as fast as her little legs could carry her. The professor went running to meet her, and caught her before she was even halfway across the room, pulling her up into a hug. They sank to the floor, with the Professor cradling the girl - Catherine - in her arms, frantically kissing her head, her face, her mass of curls.

It took a moment to decipher what Professor Song was actually saying.

"Oh my god." she was sobbing. "My sweet girl. Oh my lord, oh my lord..."

Doctor Song was watching their reunion with a happy smile, before he seemed to remember something, and snapped his head up to look at the class.

"If I find out that even one word of this has left this room," he began, and the terrifying look in his eyes made me believe every word that he said. "I will make sure that you will never speak another word. Is that clear?" he finished, and like the old Earth saying goes, "you could have heard a pin drop." Every head in the room nodded, including my own, and he smiled.

"Now get out." he finished, and the room was empty within the minute.


	2. Hide the Sonic

_River Song's P.O.V._

That night was the first night in so many that I slept soundly. The Doctor and I had brought Catherine back to the little house that I had off of campus for a bit after he showed up in my lecture hall. We had stayed there for a bit, while I tried to get over my shock. Once that was accomplished, Sweetie told me how he had found her after we put her to bed. Then, first thing in the morning, I went over to the dean's office and asked for the next month or so off.

"Why?" he had asked me, completely puzzled. "Professor Song, you are at a high point in your career. Your classes are full to overflowing, you're going on or leading several archeological digs a year... What could possibly make you want to step back?"

I took a breath, trying to calm myself down completely. "A... family matter has come up." I told him. "My husband and I..."

He cut me off there, and I groaned internally. I should have known better than to bring up the Doctor in front of the dean, as he was one of the few people on campus who refused to accept it when I told them no. Yes, we had gone on a date or two - I'll never turn down a free dinner - but nothing more than that. The Doctor understood - he knew that I needed a bit of entertainment in between his visits, and we both knew that we were mutually exclusive as far as the bedroom was concerned.

"Now then, Professor Song," Dean Carlisle said, attempting to sound concerned and charming, and coming off as unfortunately constipated. "Please, let's just stop this nonsense of playing hard to get." he simpered, a sickening grin pasted on his face.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about." I said politely. "Now then, I believe that I have informed you of my plans, and as I haven't taken a single day off since I began working here….." I smiled at the Dean. "Good day, sir."

"Wait just a moment, please, Professor." the dean said suddenly, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes before turning back to look at him.

"Yes?" I asked.

"I don't mind if you go on sabbatical for a while…." he said slowly, and I felt a surge of irritation - it was blatantly obvious what he was about to ask. "But would you mind joining me for dinner tonight?"

"I'm sorry, but -" I was saved from having to finish that sentence by my husband barging in.

"River, Catherine wanted to play hide the sonic!" he said eagerly. "Do you want to play with us?"

"Who the devil are you?" Dean Carlisle sputtered. "What are you doing in here?"

 _Oh thank Rassilon you're here._ I told the Doctor telepathically as I moved over to him. The Doctor pulled me closer, wrapping an arm around my waist, and I couldn't help but smile as I looked at the Dean. "This is my husband, Doctor Song." I told the Dean cheerfully. "Was there anything else that you needed before I leave?"

The stunned man just shook his head before we left to go play with our daughter.

"So," I said, looking up at my husband as we walked down the corridor. "Explain to me how you play 'Hide the Sonic'."


	3. Visiting Old Friends

**A/N~ Hello, sweeties! Sorry that this chapter is a bit late. I am actually going to try my best to stick to a schedule when it comes to updating this one. However, I can't promise anything...**

 **Please review!**

 **Disclaimer: Am I a middle aged man? Am I Scottish? No, and I wish (for the Scottish part)**

 _The Doctor's P.O.V._

We stayed at River's house for a week or so before I began to get restless - and surprisingly, so did Catherine. Apparently, while she had lived with Madame Vastra, she went on all sorts of adventures with them, although luckily not the dangerous sort.

We stayed at River's for a few more days after that, but after about a week and a half, even River agreed that it was time to get out of there.

"Otherwise," she said dryly, as she shut the door behind us, "You'll be likely to turn the radio into a squirrel."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous!" I scoffed. "What would be the use of that?" I turned towards Catherine, rubbing my hands together in excitement.

"Right then!" I said, holding out my hand to her. She took it, laughing, as I pulled her along, "Come along, Little Pond!"

I had been calling her that a lot in the past week, as a kind of reminder of her grandparents. Amy and Rory had yet to meet their granddaughter - or even know that she existed. When River was pregnant, we were too worried about the Silence and the rest of our enemies to go anywhere but in the Vortex, and the occasional trip out to keep us from biting each other's heads off. Then, after she was born, we were mourning Caiden….. And then we had to send her off, to keep her safe.

But now that we had her back, the only thing that was stopping us from having a Pond family reunion was the fear of Amy and Rory's reactions.

We had decided to give it another month or so to get into a routine, and give ourselves plenty of time to fuss over Catherine.

"Where are we going, Daddy?" She asked, having to run to try and keep up with my longer strides.

"Anywhere and everywhere, my dear!" I said, as River came up behind us and scooped the Time Tot up into her arms. I snapped my fingers, and the TARDIS doors opened, spilling her golden glow out across the lawn, piercing the darkness of the night. We were leaving after dark so that the neighbors hopefully wouldn't see us leaving - after all, I technically didn't exist anymore.

Catherine gasped when she saw the Old Girl's glow, and started to squirm in River's grasp, trying to get down and run ahead. River just laughed and set her down.

I wrapped an arm around my wife's waist, pulling her in closer, as we watched our little one run into the time ship, and I laughed out loud at the squeal of delight that came echoing out of the Old Girl.

"Come along, Song." I teased, offering my bespoke psychopath a hand. "Let's go join our girls before they start to get along too well. We might end up with a mutiny on our hands."

River laughed. "If that happens, sweetie, then I'm on their side." She said, and her laughter only grew when I pouted at her.

 _No One's P.O.V._

As they headed inside the TARDIS, then took off, neither of them noticed the man watching them with barely disguised irritation.

He muttered to himself as he watched, too quietly for anyone else to hear.

" _I will have her. She will be mine."_

8888

 _Catherine's P.O.V._

I looked around the ship in awe as Mummy and Daddy stood up at the big thing in the middle of the room.

"It's so big!" I said, giggling happily.

Then I froze as I heard an oddly familiar hum in my head.

 _Hello, my sweet._

I closed my eyes, focusing on the feeling. _Grandmother?_

This time, I felt the hum in my head, and all around me. I opened my eyes to see every light in the place going crazy. While I was slowly growing used to the technology that they had at my Mummy's home, this was too much for me.

I ran.

I could hear Mummy and Daddy behind me, calling out for me to stop, but I didn't listen. I just kept on running, running down the endless hallways, frantically searching for a place to hide. I passed by a garden, a music room, and a pool before I found a hiding spot.

I ended up in a room a lot like Madame Vastra's parlour - filled with all sorts of ancient plants, and muggy with heat. There was even a replica of Madame's chair, and one of Aunt Jenny's, complete with tea set up on the table.

I made my way over, and gasped in surprise as my chair appeared as well. It was just a simple pouf in deep purple, but still. I sat down, and ran my hands over the familiar settings. I just sat there for a while, and calmed down, looking over the room. Every detail was perfect - from the prehistoric plants in the room, to the little gouges in the wood where I had accidentally dropped one of Strax's scissor grenades. Aunt Jenny was so mad at him, she locked away all of his weapons for a month.

"Sweetie, I found her!" I turned around to see Mummy standing in the doorway. She was out of breath, and pale, but I could see the relief in her posture - Madame had taught me how to read body language long ago.

"Mummy, what's the matter?" I asked, as I heard Daddy come stomping toward us. He was yelling at someone, but I couldn't think of who - as far as I knew, there was no one else on board the ship.

"-time, don't _scare_ her like that!"

"Oh, my sweet angel." Mummy said, drawing my attention back to her by coming over and pulling me into a hug. "We couldn't find you."

"But Mummy, I've been here the whole time." I said, confused.

Then Daddy came into the room. "Yes, sweetheart, but the TARDIS is bigger on the inside. You can get lost in here if you aren't careful…. Or if the Old Girl is in a foul mood."

Then I heard it again.

 _I'm sorry I scared you, my dear._

This time, I spoke out loud. "Grandmother, is that you?"

Mummy looked at me in confusion. "Catherine, sweetheart, who are you talking to?"

I looked at her in confusion. "Grandmother, of course."

"How?" Asked Daddy, who had been standing in the doorway, listening to us.

I rolled my eyes, making Mummy laugh. "Don't be silly, Daddy. I was talking to her in my head."

The ship hummed happily, and I looked around again, scared. But this time, Mummy was holding me, so I didn't run - I just hugged her tight.

"There it is again, Mummy!" I cried. "Make it stop!"

Mummy laughed softly. "Is that what's been scaring you, my love?" She asked, and I nodded.

"Oh, Catherine," Daddy said, moving across the room to pull both Mummy and I into a hug. "It's alright. It's just the TARDIS saying hello."

I looked up at him, confused. "What?"

"That humming noise - its just the TARDIS saying hello. There's nothing to worry about, sweetheart."

"Oh." I said, embarrassed. I looked up at the ceiling and whispered, "Sorry."

8888

Later on, once Mummy and Daddy had told me about their ship - and my grandmother - we were back in the main room (the one with the column that went up and down and all the buttons).

"So what were you doing in there, sweetie?" Mummy asked me, and I looked away, embarrassed.

"Imissedvastraandauntjenny." I mumbled, playing with my hands.

"What was that, Catherine?" Daddy called out. He was underneath us, wearing funny looking glasses while he played with Grandmother's wiring.

"I said…. I missed Vastra and Aunt Jenny." I admitted, and waited for their responses.

After a minute or two had gone by and I still hadn't gotten one, I looked up. Mummy and Daddy were looking at each other funny - like they were talking with their eyes.

Then Daddy smiled. "Well, then, I think I know where we're going next." He said, and Mummy smiled as she got up to help him drive.

The TARDIS shook as she flew and I clung on to the railing for dear life. Then she came to a shuddering halt, and I looked up at my parents.

"Go on, then!" Daddy said, smiling at me. "Open the doors."

I ran for them, but Mummy stopped me before I could reach them.

"Wait!" She called, and I froze, turning back to look at her. Then she smiled. "We have to get dressed first, my sweet angel."


	4. And Making New Ones

_Catherine's P.O.V._

A little while later, Mummy and I were walking back to the console room. We had been in the wardrobe, getting dressed for where we were going. Mummy had picked out the most beautifullest dress for me to wear - it looked like one of the dresses that I had at Paternoster Row, but it was a pale blue-green colour.

Mummy had picked out a dress, too. Hers was deep blue, with a full skirt that bustled in the back, long sleeves, and a button up collar that was edged with black lace. It had trim and edging done in plaid in the same deep blue color and black.

Daddy was waiting for us when we got to the console room, and he grinned at both of us.

"Look at my beautiful girls!" He said happily, holding his elbow out to Mummy, who slipped her arm through his. I wasn't really listening to what Daddy was saying, though - I was already opening up the doors.

"Come on, Mummy, Daddy!" I said, too excited to wait any longer. As soon as Mummy had shown me my dress, I knew where we were going - Number Thirteen Paternoster Row, to visit Aunt Jenny and Vastra.

"Wait for us, sweetheart." Daddy called after me, but I was too excited to listen. I ran out the door without another thought.

But once I got to the front of the alleyway where Daddy had landed us, I regretted leaving my parents behind.

"Well what have we here?"

I looked up to see two of the people that scared me the most - Miss Emily Holroyd and Miss Alice Guppy. They had come after Aunt Vastra several times by now - not that they knew that she was a Silurian. They normally came to her under the pretense of asking for help on a case, while they were really trying to figure out the secrets of the Veiled Detective. At some point, they had started after me as well, having noticed how much smarter I was than other children my age. Thankfully, they hadn't noticed anything strange about Aunt Jenny. Uncle Strax, on the other hand, was just a lost cause. He stayed hidden when the ladies of Torchwood Cardiff came around.

"Hello!" I said, trying to keep my voice level. One of the main reasons why Torchwood scared me so much was because of why they existed - to protect Britain from aliens, but namely the Doctor. Because of my parentage, Madame had always been careful about how much they knew about me. But now my secret was out of the bag.

So I did the only thing that I could think to do.

I started talking.

"What are you doing here?" I asked them, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"This is where we live, child." Miss Holroyd said, tilting her head at me with interest. "The real question is, what are you doing in Cardiff?"

"I'm here…. with Madame." I quickly lied.

 _Meanwhile, in the TARDIS…._

The Doctor and River had been about to follow Catherine out of the TARDIS when the door slammed shut behind her. That - and a stubborn _wheeze-groan_ from the Old Girl - was all it took to have the two parents on high alert.

The Doctor ran over to the monitor, while River started to frantically type in commands, cursing under her breath.

"What's going on?" The Doctor yelled, frustrated. "Catherine's out there!"

Then he saw what - or more specifically, _who_ was out there, and he froze.

"Sweetie?" River asked, her voice steely calm despite her obvious worry. "What is it?"

The Doctor was only able to get one word out, he was so panicked. "Torchwood."'

" _What?_ " River gasped, her fear finally showing on her face as she moved around the console to join her husband at the monitor. Sure enough, two of the original members of the Torchwood Institute were standing in front of their little girl. Judging by the looks of surprise and hatred on the women's faces, they knew Catherine.

"Doctor, we have to get out there." River said, running towards the doors as fast as she could - which would have been a lot faster if her dress hadn't kept tripping her up.

"Damn this thing!" She cursed once she finally reached the TARDIS doors. She began to pull on them frantically, trying to get them to open with all of her might. Even with her Human-Plus strength, they wouldn't budge.

The Doctor was still standing at the console, his eyes glued to the monitor as he watched the scene unfold. Once Catherine had been dragged away by the women, he finally pulled away and moved over to his wife.

"River -" he began, but she ignored him, choosing to yank on the doors instead. Finally, the Doctor had to physically pull her off of the doors to get her to listen.

"River, its too late!" He said, struggling as he tried to keep a hold of her. "She's gone." He admitted, and that was when River finally stopped struggling.

8888

 _Catherine's P.O.V._

Miss Guppy and Miss Holroyd drug me back to the Torchwood building, where a man was laying, asleep.

"Harkness!" Miss Holroyd yelled, throwing something at him. "Wake up!"

The man spluttered awake. "Wha…?" He yawned, stretching as he looked up at us. He had dark hair, and bright blue eyes. Despite the fact that he was _here,_ with Torchwood, I still trusted him.

"Take her to one of the cells." Miss Guppy commanded, and the man snorted.

"I don't work for you." He responded, and I smiled at that.

"Do it, or _you'll_ end up in one of the cells instead." Miss Holroyd said, shoving me so that I would keep walking.

That's when he saw me, and I saw a flash of recognition in his eyes, before his face settled into a hard mask.

"Fine." He bit out, and grabbed my shoulder as he took me away. I started to struggle against him, but he just squeezed my shoulder tighter.

"Stop it." He ground out, and I listened, remembering what Aunt Jenny used to tell me:

 _The best way to find out what's going on is to get yourself caught._

8888

The man - Harkness - led me down several floors before we stopped. I took a look around, confused. We were in the middle of a hallway, but the nearest door was several metres away.

"What are you…?" I began, but I trailed off when the man knelt in front of me.

"Hiya, kiddo." He said, giving me a big grin. "Captain Jack Harkness, at your service. You're Jenny's niece, aren't you?"

"How did you know that?" I asked him.

"Jenny's an old friend of mine. We run in the same… circles, if you catch my meaning. I've seen you around Paternoster Row, although your aunt usually makes sure I'm not around you. For some reason, she thinks that I'm a bad influence." He said, before growing serious once more. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Well….." He admitted, "Just enough to pay the bills."

I considered him for a moment, before deciding that he was telling the truth.

"Hello." I said, curtsying like Madame had taught "My name is Catherine Amelia Song. How do you do?"

Captain Jack Harkness laughed at that - a deep, infectious laugh that had me smiling as well. "Alright then, Miss Song. Let's get you out of here." He took my hand, leading me down the corridor.

"What are you doing in Cardiff, anyways?" He asked me.

"Mummy and Daddy were taking me to visit Aunt Vastra and Aunt Jenny." I told him. "We got a bit muddled on the directions, though."

"I'll say." The Captain laughed, before pausing. "You said you were with your Mum and Dad?"

I nodded at him. "Mmhmm."

"But Vastra told me that your parents couldn't keep you…" he trailed off, confused, as he pulled the grate off of a cooling duct. "She never gave any names, just that they couldn't keep you."

"No, its just that a lot of people don't like Mummy and Daddy." I explained. "So I had to live with Madame and Aunt Jenny for a little."

I climbed into the duct, before turning to look at the Captain. "Are you coming?" I asked him. I didn't really know him all that well, but I had already grown attached to him.

But he shook his head. "Sorry, sweetheart." He said. "But someone's gotta make sure that those two don't remember ever running into you." He gave a sad smile, before forcing it away, replacing it with a bigger - although obviously fake - one. "Now go on!" He said. "Go find your parents."

I nodded, giving him one last smile before turning and crawling away.

8888

Once I found my way out of the Torchwood Hub, it barely took any time at all to find my way back to the TARDIS. Luckily the blue box was right where it had been, because I had no idea what I would have done if it wasn't there.

I knocked on the door gently - I was still a bit nervous about doing that, I didn't want to hurt the ship since she was alive and all - and it swung open automatically.

In the middle of the room was a scary thing. Mummy and Daddy were sitting on the floor, crying. They looked up when the door opened though, and as soon as they got over their initial shock, they were running over to pull me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart." Daddy said. "We tried to come after you, but the TARDIS wouldn't let us out."

"Are you okay?" Mummy asked as she fussed over me. "Did they hurt you? How did you get away?"

I hugged them back as I answered. "Its okay, Daddy, I'm fine. No, they didn't hurt me."

"How did you get away from them, sweetheart?" Daddy asked me, and I huffed at him.

"Well I was _going_ to tell you, Daddy." I said, and Mummy chuckled while Daddy whispered, " _She's got your temperment."_

"A nice man helped me!" I told them excitedly, and both Mummy and Daddy froze, giving each other worried looks.

"Sweetheart…" Mummy said slowly. "Didn't Aunt Jenny and Vastra teach you not to talk to strangers?"

"Yes." I nodded. "But he wasn't a stranger. He knows Aunt Jenny."

"Well, did he tell you his name?" Daddy asked me, still worried.

I pulled away from them and ran up to one of the seats around the console. "Yup." I said as I scrambled up onto it.

"Well what was it?" Mummy asked impatiently.

"Captain Jack Harkness!" I said excitedly. "Mummy, Daddy, can we please go tell him thank you for helping me?"

But Daddy just stormed past me and started flicking switches, while Mummy kept smirking at him.

"No. No we can't." Daddy said, very crossly.

"Well why not?" I asked.

"Because," Daddy said, glaring at Mummy. "Mummy and Captain Jack should not be on the same _planet_ as each other, let alone in the same room."

 **A/N~ Hello, sweeties. Sorry, I know that this update is late :( However, here's hoping that the length of it makes up for the wait slightly.**

 **Please review!**


	5. Time Lord Fairy Tales

That night, the Doctor and River were in the TARDIS cinema room, watching _The Graduate,_ when Catherine walked in.

River immediately paused the film, while the Doctor jumped up out of his seat.

"What's the matter, sweetheart?" he asked. "You're supposed to be in bed, asleep."

Catherine rubbed at her sleepy eyes, her stuffed Adipose clutched tightly in her other hand. "I had a bad dream." she said, punctuating her statement with a yawn.

River chuckled, and bent down to pick up the sleepy Time Tot.

"Come on, my sweet." she said softly, as she carried the little one back towards her bedroom. "Back to bed with you."

The Doctor followed his wife to their daughter's bedroom, pausing in the doorway.

The room was of medium size, with light purple walls. The ceiling changed every time that they landed some place new, with the current picture being of the Time Vortex.

The rest of the room was as close to a normal child's as it could possibly be, other than the wall lined with bookshelves and the toys from various time periods strewn over the floor.

The Doctor smiled as he watched River put their daughter back in bed, tucking her under the covers. River kissed her brow and whispered "Good night, my little angel," to her before getting up off of the bed and heading back towards the Doctor.

"Mummy?" Catherine called out, making her stop in her tracks. "Will you read me a story?"

The Doctor stepped in then. "Why don't I read one?" he offered, giving his daughter a grin. "After all, I do the voices better." he whispered, and River laughed softly.

Catherine just nodded in agreement, before settling back in the bed.

The Doctor walked over to the bookshelves, looking for one to read. But when he got close enough to read the titles, he froze.

 _What are you up to?_ He asked the TARDIS accusingly, but only got a smug little hum in response.

"Sweetie?" River asked, concerned. "Are you alright?"

He nodded, too shocked at the moment to say anything. Then, even though he was still screaming in his mind, his hand reached out and slowly pulled one of the books off of the shelf.

He flipped it over and ran his fingers over the deep blue cover, over the illustrated Cyberman on the one side, and the Sontaran on the other.

Then he swallowed the lump in his throat, and turned around, carrying the book with him as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Let's begin, then, shall we?" the Doctor said softly, and then he heard River gasp as she caught sight of the title of the book.

He gave a tight smile before opening to a page at random, and then he began:

"Once upon a time, long long ago in the Old Times when Gallifrey was young, Rassilon set up the Matrix and was made first president of the Time Lords…"

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"But Snow White slept on, one of the Seven Keys to Doomsday still clutched to her hearts.

Some say that she is sleeping still."

Once the Doctor had said the last words, he slowly closed the book, giving a soft sigh of relief when he saw that his little girl had finally fallen asleep.

He placed the book back on the shelf before quietly slipping out of the room, working extra hard to keep his gangly limbs under control so that he wouldn't wake her by accident.

When he finally makes it back to the cinema room, its with an overdramatic sigh as he flops back down next to River.

"Where did that come from?" River asks, getting straight to the point. His bad girl was never known for her tact, he muses.

The Doctor sighed. "From deep down in storage, I imagine." he answered, shifting to pull his River onto his lap. "She wanted to make sure that Catherine had a taste of home, I suppose."

And with that last thought, the Last of the Time Lords and his bespoke psychopath drifted off, as _The Graduate_ played in the background.

 **A/N~ Sorry again for the late update! I'm not doing so well at following a schedule for this…**

 **Anyways, thank you to Guest for reviewing on both chapters 1 and 2!**


	6. Day Care

_River's P.O.V._

The Doctor had dropped Catherine and I back at Luna for a bit, while he went to go and get Mum and Dad. That was fine with me, it just meant that I would have to take a break from my little angel to teach my classes.

At first, Catherine spent the time when I taught in the university's day care center. That went well for awhile, until I got a call from the day care in the middle of a class. Leaving the class in the capable hands of my TA - after giving them a pop quiz to keep them busy - I ran for the main building on campus.

When I got there, I found Catherine sitting there, pouting, while another little boy was being cradled by his parents, with tears running down his face and a bloody lip.

"What happened?" I asked the teacher. She gave me an annoyed look - or as annoyed as she could, considering her exoskeleton.

"Your daughter attacked one of the other children." she said simply. I frowned, looking at Catherine.

"Why would you do that, sweetheart?" I asked her.

She looked up at me, eyes wide. "It wasn't my fault, Mummy!" she said. "He said that I was a liar. 'Cause I was teyyin' my friend about goin' to visit wif Auntie Jenny!"

"She is!" The boy in question interrupted. "She said she went to 1894, and that her aunt is a lizard lady!"

I groaned inwardly. We hadn't even thought about telling Catherine not to tell anyone about our little "family adventures," but apparently we should have.

"So what happened then?" I asked. "Because I know that Catherine wouldn't have punched him if he didn't give her a reason to."

The boy looked up at the adults with a guilty expression. "I, um…. I pushed her down." he admitted quietly. His parents looked at him furiously, but I just smiled at him gently.

"And did you learn your lesson?" I asked him, and he nodded. "Well in that case I believe that we're done here."

"Just a moment, Professor." Catherine's teacher called out as we went to leave. "We still need to talk about Catherine's behavior."

"What about it?" I asked, turning to stare her down. She flinched slightly, but surprisingly enough she didn't back down.

"She attacked another child, Professor."

"She was provoked."

"That doesn't matter." the teacher snapped. "She may not come back here."

I smirked at her, and that smirk only grew when she shrank down slightly. "Fine." I snapped. "She'll just have to come to class with me."

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The next day when students started to walk into the room, most of them stopped in surprise for a moment or two when they saw a 4 year old practicing her Circular Gallifreyan on the holo-board. Of course, they didn't know that it was Circular Gallifreyan, but still…

"Good afternoon, everyone!" I said loudly, drawing the students' attention away from my daughter and towards me. "If everyone would please open up your e-texts to page 384, we can begin…."

"Excuse me, Professor Song" one of my students called out, and I sighed in annoyance at the interruption. "But… who is that?"

"That is my daughter." I said quickly, and tried to ignore the gasps and bursts of chatter that sprung up around the room because of that revelation. "She will be attending classes with me for awhile, as the university's day care facilities have deemed her as unfit to attend there."

I looked around the room then for a moment, and, once I was sure that there were no more questions, I continued on with the lesson.

"Now then, today we will be addressing the return of _homo reptilia_ during the early twenty-first century…"

 **A/N~ Hello, sweeties! And so we have another chapter finished! Now here is when things begin to get a bit timey-wimey, and maybe just a little spacey-wacey. Sorry about that… not really. I tried to make Catherine sound slightly closer to her age, but not too much.**

 **Now, to answer reviews:**

 **Mermaid1108 - it was her dress. The Doctor hadn't even bothered stopping for a moment between finding her and going to River, so she was still wearing the same clothes that she had been wearing in Victorian London.**


	7. TATM

**A/N~ I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry.**

 _River Song's P.O.V._

Catherine and I were on Luna for a week or so before the Doctor showed up again. He didn't have my parents with him, though. Instead, there was a group of Slitheen chasing after him.

Luckily, they were stopped easily enough - although I did have to buy more vinegar for the campus's dinner ladies afterwards. Then we were free to just relax. The Doctor even attended a few of my classes, although he wasn't allowed to speak after the first one.

Life was…. _normal_. And considering who I had married, that in itself was abnormal.

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After another few days of just hanging around my house, the Doctor and I decided that it was time for Catherine to meet her grandparents.

Early that morning, I kissed my sweetie goodbye as he went to pick up Mummy and Daddy. We had agreed to meet up in Central Park, New York City.

I watched - wincing slightly as the Old Girl made that _horrible_ noise - before turning around to go back inside. It was only then that I realized we had never decided on _when_ we were going to meet.

"That makes things a bit more challenging…" I mused as I walked towards the door.

"Professor Song?" a voice called out.

"I'm sorry, but I am not looking over applications for digs at the moment…" I began, but trailed off when I saw who was speaking.

She was definitely not from around here - I would have noticed her sooner. Her skin was paler than Amy's, but her hair - which went about halfway down her back - was jet black in contrast. She wore a black sleeveless corset dress with unattached sleeves, which had a rather short skirt, but big black combat boots covered most of her legs.

"Um, Professor?" she asked, and I snapped out of it, and gave her a smile. "Sorry, it's just…. have we met?" I asked hesitantly. I had a theory about who she was, but I couldn't be sure…

"No, we haven't." she said firmly. "Anyway, someone gave me a message for you."

"Yes? What is it?" I asked, looking back to the house impatiently.

"This trip you are about to go on," she began hesitantly, and my attention was fully on her as soon as she said that. "You need to go alone."

The girl looked at me in confusion. "Does that make any sense to you, Professor?"

I nodded stiffly. "Unfortunately, yes." I said, narrowing my eyes at her. "Who exactly told you this? Who asked you to come find me?"

Before she could answer, I heard the front door of the house open. "Mummy? What's going on?" Catherine called out as she came running over to me.

"Its nothing, sweetie." I said, crouching down so we were on the same level. "Why don't you go inside and pick what you are going to wear today, hmm?"

Catherine nodded in agreement at me before she ran back into the house, leaving me alone once more with my mystery guest.

"So, who was it that you said -" I began to ask once more, but stopped halfway through the question when I turned around to see that the girl had vanished - or she would have, if I hadn't known she was there. But because I knew that, I was able to see past the perception filter that she was wearing.

"Don't even bother." I said with a smirk. "I can still see you."

The girl shimmered back into view, looking both annoyed and - for some reason - nostalgic. "I should have known." she said simply. I gave her a questioning look, but she refused to say anything more.

"Is that all you had to tell me?" I asked her, and she nodded, before turning away.

As she walked off, I couldn't help myself - I called out to her. I had to know if my theory was right.

"Angel" I called out. If I was right - and I usually was - then the chances were higher that she would respond to that then her name.

She turned around instinctively, then winced once she realized that I had discovered her little ruse.

"How did you know?" she asked me as she walked back over.

I just laughed. "Did you really think I wouldn't recognize my own daughter?" I asked, pulling her into a hug. "Why didn't you just tell me that it was you?" I asked her, pulling back so that I could get a good look at her.

Catherine just shrugged at me. It was obvious that she was hiding something, but I decided not to push the subject for the moment.

Instead, I focused on why she was here in the first place.

"So you never get to meet Amy and Rory?" I asked her sadly.

"What?" she asked, confused for a moment. "Why would you say that?"

"Because you said that I should go alone." I said sadly. "Which means that there will be danger. And," I admitted, "While I may not remember much of my childhood because of the Silence, I do remember parts of it. I do remember how Amy and Rory are… are lost." I smiled at her gently, and she just pulled me in for another hug. We stayed like that for a minute or two before I pulled away.

"Well," I said, trying to keep my mask from slipping. "I suppose I'd best be getting back inside. Rassilon only knows what trouble your younger self has gotten into."

The Angel chuckled softly at that, and stood there watching as I walked away.

"Mum?" she called out hesitantly. I turned around, and she gave me a sad smile.

"I have met them." she said softly, before clarifying. "Nana and Granddad, I mean. Just so you know."

I smiled at her one last time, before she disappeared from sight with the flash of light that I usually associated with a Vortex Manipulator.

"Thank you, my sweet angel." I murmured, before hurrying inside to see what chaos had happened in the short time that Catherine had been unsupervised.

 **And now for the reviews:**

 **Mermaid1108: I am so, so sorry. But don't worry - she'll meet them… eventually.**


	8. 13 Bannerman Road

**Please review!**

 _River Song's P.O.V._

"Are you ready, Catherine?" I asked my daughter nervously. She smiled up at me, holding out her arms for me to pick her up.

"Yes, Mummy." she said, giggling slightly as I swung her into my arms. I had her travel bag on one arm and my daughter in the other, and so it took a bit of maneuvering to reach the buttons on my Vortex Manipulator, but I managed to type the coordinates in.

"Hold on tight, sweetie." I warned her, before pushing one last button and sending us on our way.

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We popped up at the end of Bannerman Road, just in time for a little mint green car to drive past. It had turned around and started back towards us in a heartbeat, and I started to get worried. Until the car stopped next to us to reveal the driver to be none other than Miss Sarah Jane Smith.

"Hello there." she said warmly, although her voice had steel undertones. "Might I ask as to what your names are?"

"It's me, Sarah." I said, confused. My confusion only grew as her expression became more guarded.

"Who are you?" She asked. "How do you know me?"

"What year is it?" I asked, instead of answering her.

"November 23, 2002." Her expression changed slightly when I asked that, becoming almost hopeful.

I groaned, looking at my Vortex Manipulator. "Rubbish thing must be on the fritz again." I muttered, putting Catherine down for a moment so I could examine it. Sarah Jane snapped me out of it a moment later.

"Doctor? Is that you?" she asked, her voice quieter now, almost embarrassed.

I opened up the back door and slid in next to Catherine. "Sorry, no." I said, getting my little girl buckled in. "But I am the next best thing."

Sarah Jane arched an eyebrow at me, still looking rather skeptical. "Oh really?" she asked. "And what is that?"

"Why, I'm his wife, of course." I said, as if it were obvious. "Now if you wouldn't mind driving, that would be brilliant, thank you!"

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Once we arrived at Sarah Jane's house, it took only moments for us to get inside. I got Catherine situated, while Sarah Jane started the tea.

"So you're the Doctor's… _wife_?" She asked me incredulously. I just laughed.

"Yes, I know." I said. "He's not exactly the type to settle down. Luckily for him, neither am I."

That at least got her to smile slightly. "I can tell that."

"You never did tell me your name." She said after a moment of silence.

I smiled. "Professor River Song." I said, introducing myself before I nodded at my daughter. "And this little angel is Catherine, my daughter."

"Lovely to meet you both." She said, motioning for me to pick up one of the cups that she had made as she left the room. I got Catherine's attention before both of us followed after her.

Sarah Jane led us upstairs to her attic. As soon as I stepped through the doorway, though, a containment vortex appeared around me.

"Mummy!" Catherine shouted, looking terrified. She moved to press her hands against the sides of the vortex, but I stopped her before she could.

"Everything is fine, my love." I said, trying to soothe her. Then I turned to look at Miss Sarah Jane Smith. "What is this about?" I asked her, suddenly wishing that I had brought my Alpha-Meson blaster with us.

Sarah Jane didn't bother to reply. "Mr. Smith, I need you!" she called out. With a loud fanfare and lots of smoke, a large empty section of brick wall opened up to reveal a massive computer.

"Yes, Sarah Jane?" the computer asked.

"Mr. Smith, please do a scan of Professor Song." Sarah Jane requested, and a bright pink ray came out of the computer, scanning me completely.

"Scans indicate Gallifreyan origin." the computer said after a minute. Sarah Jane looked shocked for a moment, before asking the computer to get rid of the containment vortex.

As soon as it was out of the way, Catherine ran at me, hugging me so tightly that I nearly toppled over.

"Shh," I said, hugging her back. "It's okay, sweetie. I'm fine." I whispered in her ear as I smoothed back her curls.

"My apologies, Professor." Sarah Jane said. "But you never can be too careful, especially when it comes to the Doctor."

I laughed halfheartedly. "Yes, I can certainly understand that. But really, Sarah Jane, all you had to do was ask."

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We talked for a little while longer, while Catherine played with K-9. I told her about my Doctor, and she told me about hers. Then we got to the real reason behind our visit.

"I was hoping that you wouldn't mind looking after Catherine for a day or two." I told Sarah Jane. "Just until I'm done with a certain… _adventure_ … that I have been warned is fairly dangerous. I should be back before her birthday, but… and I had so hoped to get a version of you who knew who we were…"

Sarah Jane looked slightly terrified, but determined. "It's no trouble at all, Professor." she assured me. "Any friend - or more than friend, as the case may be - of the Doctor's is a friend of mine. Besides, I've handled some of the worst monsters in the universe - how much trouble could a four-year-old be in comparison?"

I laughed at that. "Oh, you're going to regret having said that." I told her. But I called Catherine over to us anyways.

"What is it, Mummy?" she asked me.

"You're going to stay with Sarah Jane for a few days, alright, my love?" I told her.

She nodded, but looked worried. I bent down in front of her so that we were on the same level. "What's wrong, angel?" I asked her.

"You're coming back, right?" she asked me softly. My face fell when I heard that.

"Of course I'm coming back!" I told her. "Why on earth wouldn't I be coming back?"

"Because I had a bad dream last night where you didn't come back home!" Catherine shouted, then burst out into tears, throwing herself at me.

I tried to console her as best I could as I tried to process this new information. Although, it did make how clingy she had been make more sense.

"Shh, it's alright, angel, everything's fine." I whispered as I stroked her hair. "Mummy will be fine. I promise."

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It took a bit of time to get Catherine to calm down completely, but we managed it eventually.

The last image that I had of my baby girl was of her standing there, waving good-bye to me, with Sarah Jane holding her other hand.

 **A/N~ Hello, sweeties! So, do you remember that updating schedule that I had talked about? Yeah, that's basically disappeared... sorry about that! I'm nearly graduated, and so my schedule is a bit more hectic than usual.**

 **Anyways, thanks to Mermaid1108 and KirkSauber for reviewing! You two are fantastic!**


	9. A Day in the Park

As soon as Professor Song disappeared, the two remaining ladies went back inside the red brick house that was Number 13 Bannerman Road.

"So, Catherine," Sarah Jane began. She tried to remember the last time that she had dealt with small children for an extended period of time. Sadly, she couldn't think of a single one. "What sort of… activities do you like to do?" she asked, and the little Time Tot just stared up at her for a moment.

"I like to play dressing up." she said quietly, looking up at Sarah Jane nervously.

"Well unfortunately I don't have any fancy dress costumes." Sarah Jane said. Then she got an idea. "But, there is a park nearby. Would you like to go there?" she asked.

Catherine thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Okay!" she said happily.

Sarah Jane nearly sighed in relief. At least that went well… hopefully the rest of this adventure would be so easy…

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Of course, nothing could ever be easy.

A few hours after they got to the park, Sarah Jane was sitting on one of the park benches when she saw one of the few people in the world of journalism that she didn't like, but still had to contact every once in awhile - Mr. Roderick Barret Bone. He was everything that she hated: self-centered, narcissistic, and willing to tell whatever story was wanted, as long as people were willing to pay enough. And on top of that, he had somehow convinced himself that Sarah Jane was in love with him.

"Sarah!" the man in question called out as soon as he saw the woman, making his way over to where she sat.

She sighed, already fighting to keep her temper in check. "Mr. Bone, how many times do I have to tell you? My name is Sarah _Jane_."

He just laughed, as if she had said something rather adorable. "So _Ms._ Smith, what brings you here?"

Sarah Jane was just about to answer when something else caught her attention. She looked over at the playground just in time to see a blur of blonde fall out of a tree.

She was up and running before Catherine even had a chance to start crying.

"Are you alright?" she asked the young girl, falling to her knees as she checked her over for injuries. In the back of her mind, the small part of her that hadn't been taken over by blind panic was marveling at how fast the Doctor's daughter had wormed her way into her heart.

The girl sniffed softly, her tears drying up as she nodded. Then….

Catherine saw something over Sarah Jane's shoulder, and her mouth twitched upwards in a mischievous smile before going back to a sad look. Sarah Jane recognized that look immediately. It was the same smile that her Doctor(s) used to give her right before he(they?) did something that he(they?) knew she probably wouldn't approve of.

"Mummy!" she wailed, throwing herself onto Sarah Jane's lap. "It hurts!"

A small smile played across Sarah Jane's face as she realized what was going on. Then she dredged up the acting abilities that her years as an investigative journalist - as well as her years on the TARDIS - had given her. "It's okay, sweetheart." she said, trying to sound as soothing as possible. "I'll take care of you."

Sarah Jane's grin only grew as she heard spluttering behind her. She turned around, still cradling the young Time Lady in her lap as she looked up at Mr. Roderick Bone with as much innocence as she could manage at the moment.

"Is something the matter, Mr. Bone?" she asked him.

"You - you have a _child_?" he asked, and Sarah Jane could barely contain her amusement with the situation.

"Mummy, who's dat?" Catherine asked, saving the older woman from having to come up with a convincing lie about the child.

"This is a colleague of mine." Sarah Jane said, looking back at Mr. Bone, who by this point was doing a frantic sort of backpedal as he tried to remove himself from the situation.

"I was actually just leaving…" he stuttered, before turning on his heels and walking away as fast as he could without breaking into a run.

Catherine and Sarah Jane just sat there and watched him go, before looking at each other,and bursting into laughter. They were still laughing as Sarah Jane helped the young girl up and took her hand as they went to leave the park.

Once they were back on Bannerman Road, they had finally calmed down enough for Sarah Jane to be able to ask the question that had been bothering her since the Time Tot had first called her "Mummy".

"How did you know that he was bothering me, anyway?" she asked.

Catherine just shrugged. "I just knew, I guess."

 **A/N~ Hello, my dears! I'm sorry, that chapter didn't turn out at all like I had hoped it would. Hopefully, the next one will be better! Also, please review - reviews are like food for the creativity!**


	10. Summer Falls

Nearly a week had passed since that first visit to the park, and Catherine Amelia Song was still staying at Number 13 Bannerman Road with Miss Sarah Jane Smith. Both of them were beginning to get a bit restless. Sarah Jane was because she didn't want to take the Doctor's daughter along with her on any potentially dangerous assignments - both her jobs as an investigative journalist and a Defender of Earth had gotten her into many sticky situations. Meanwhile, Catherine was getting restless because she wanted to go on an adventure. She hadn't gone this long without at least having to sit in a jail cell on one planet or another for awhile. Luckily, they were both about to get what they wanted - an escape from their boredom.

Catherine was down for a nap - even though she was a Time Lady, she was still a child, and as such, tired easily. Sarah Jane was sitting up at her computer in the attic, finishing up her latest article, when there was a knock at the door.

"Sarah Jane, there is someone at the door." Mr. Smith told her.

The investigative journalist merely rolled her eyes. "Yes, thank you, Mr. Smith. I had noticed that."

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" she called as she hurried down the stairs, intent on answering the door before her visitor had the opportunity to ring again and possibly wake Catherine up.

"What is it?" she snapped as she opened up the door.

"And what sort of greeting is that, hmm?"

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Catherine Song woke up slowly, although she wasn't sure why at first. It was too early for her to be done with her nap, but something wasn't right…

She rubbed at her eyes as she tried to collect her thoughts. What was it? What was it that had woken her up?

Catherine closed her eyes, extending her range on her other senses.

 _There._ Green eyes flew open as she figured out what it was that was bothering her. There was something _extra_ in the house. The smell of cigars and coffee - faint, but still there, and coming from the sitting room. Then there was the extra sounds- the _tap_ of a cane, the _clink_ of china, and the hearty laughter of her Aunt Sarah.

Laughter meant that all was well, the young Time Lady noted. But then why didn't Aunt Sarah come and get her? The few times that there had been guests since she had arrived, Aunt Sarah had always gotten her to introduce her to them - even if she was napping. She slipped out of her bed and pushed her frizzy blonde curls out of her eyes before sneaking downstairs. She stopped in the doorway to the sitting room, and peered around the edge of the doorway, only to pull back immediately when she saw someone looking straight at her.

"And who's this little one?" bellowed a man's deep voice.

Catherine gulped, before stepping out from her hiding spot.

Aunt Sarah smiled at her, but she was too busy observing this new person to really notice. The first thing that she noticed was that he held himself like Mummy did, like he was ready for anything to happen. The next thing that she noticed was that he still looked very kind, even though he was obviously some sort of soldier. She just wasn't sure what kind - he didn't dress like a soldier, at least not like any that she'd ever seen. Instead of a uniform, he wore khaki trousers, and a red sleeveless jumper over a white collared shirt and under a plaid tweed jacket. A cane was resting against the sofa next to him, and an ascot cap. The only reason that she knew what an ascot cap was was because of her Daddy's hat collection in the TARDIS.

"Hello there." the man said, smiling at her. "And what's your name?"

"Oh, Sir Alistair, this is Catherine, my… niece." Sarah said quickly. "Catherine, sweetheart, this is an old friend of mine, the Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart."

"Hello there, young lady." Sir Alistair said, smiling down at her.

The little girl's face lit up. "I know who you are!" she said excitedly. "My Daddy tells me stories about you. And Mummy says that you're absolutely amazing!"

Sir Alistair laughed. "Oh really?" he asked. "And why is that?"

This time, the child looked solemn, but anyone could see the mischief twinkling in her eyes. "Because you worked with Daddy for so long and didn't shoot him."

The Brigadier couldn't help but burst out in laughter at that, and even Sarah Jane had to work to hide her laughter. Inside, though, she was panicking. If the Brigadier found out who Catherine was…. She felt horrible hiding the truth from one of her oldest friends, but it was for everyone's safety. Professor Song had explained to her about her past, and about the aliens and monsters that were constantly after their little family.

"Is that so?" Sir Alistair asked. "And who is your father, if you don't mind me asking?"

Before she could say another word, though, Sarah Jane had interrupted.

"Catherine, would you be a dear and take K-9 for a walk?" Sarah Jane asked.

The little one nodded, and Sarah Jane helped her into her coat before sending her out the door with K-9 rolling along behind her.

As soon as the door closed behind the strange pair, the Brig turned to his old friend. "I wasn't aware that you had any siblings." he told her. But what he meant was that he knew that she didn't - UNIT was very thorough when it came to the personnel files of anyone who ever traveled with the Time Lord known as the Doctor.

"I don't." Sarah Jane said, giving the Brigadier a teasing smile. "As you are well aware."

"Then who...?" Lethbridge-Stewart asked.

"She's the daughter of a very old friend." Was all that Sarah Jane would say on the subject. "Now then, where were we…?"

"I believe that we were talking about the Zygons…" The Brig said, earning himself a nostalgic smile.

"Oh, yes!" Sarah Jane said happily. "The Loch Ness Monster!"

But now the Brigadier had been distracted by the appearance of the young Time Lady - although he had no idea that that was what she was.

"Who _exactly_ are her parents, Sarah Jane?" Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart asked.

"I told you, they're old friends of mine. In fact, they're practically family." she said, trying to keep any hint of defensiveness out of her voice. "Why do you ask?"

"Those clothes of hers -" the Brig said, referring to Catherine. She had been very determined to pick her own clothes out that morning, and had finally decided on a chartreuse striped shirt with a blue denim skirt and bright purple leggings, along with a matching purple bow tie and hair bow. Sarah Jane had tried to talk her out of it, but the child was even more stubborn than her father was.

"What about them?" Sarah asked cautiously. She had a feeling she knew where the Brig was going with this, though- after all, he had known the Doctor for even longer than she had.

"Well, its just that its the sort of thing that one would expect the Doctor to pull together." the Brigadier said with a knowing smile. "After all, the old chap was known for his knowledge, not his clothing choices."

Sarah Jane laughed. "Maybe so, but can you just imagine the Doctor as a _father?_ " she laughed, hoping that the Brig had forgotten all about the Doctor's stories of his family back on Gallifrey.

"Yes, I suppose you're right…" he said, and Sarah Jane sighed in relief. Maybe she could get through the rest of the visit without making the Brig any more suspicious than he already was…

"Aunt Sarah! Aunt Sarah!"

...or maybe not.

Sarah Jane turned to look at the rambunctious four-year-old that had just burst through the front door.

"Yes Catherine, what is it?" she asked.

"Mummy's here!" the little one said, and Sarah Jane got up off of the sofa quickly.

"Where?"

A familiar, throaty voice said, "Right here."

Professor Song walked through the door, and Sarah Jane nearly gasped in shock. She looked wonderful! Her hair was pulled up on top of her head, so that only a few curly wisps of hair hung around her face. Her dress was all black and floor-length, with sheer sleeves and a sequined corset bodice.

"Oh, you look lovely!" She gushed, making her way over to the other woman.

River gave a half-hearted smile in reply. "Thank you." she said, before crouching down so that she was face-to-face with her daughter.

"Why don't you go upstairs and pack your things, sweetheart? That way Aunt Sarah Jane and I can talk for a bit, alright?" she asked. Catherine nodded, before thundering up the stairs to the bedroom that she had been sleeping in.

Sarah Jane laughed. "I swear, she can sound like a herd of elephants when she wants to!"

River's response was a barely there smile, before practically throwing herself down and the couch and putting her head in her hands.

"What's the matter?" Sarah Jane asked.

River answered without even looking up. "We were supposed to meet in New York, in Central Park. But instead we ended up in the late 1930s, fighting against these creatures - they're called Weeping Angels. Horrible, deadly things. They… they got my Mum and Dad, and my sweetie's best friends… I promised Catherine that she was going to meet them after this trip…"

"What am I going to do?" she mumbled, before looking up to ask for Sarah Jane's help. That was when her eyes landed on the other person in the room. "Oh, hello there. Sorry about the interruption." she said, holding out her hand to the man. "I'm Professor River Song."

The Brig took her hand, giving her a warm smile. "Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart." he said, and his smile grew a bit when she gave a little gasp of recognition. "Ah, so you've heard of me then?"

"Of course." River told him, her eyes twinkling. "Sweetie loves talking about his old friends - and stories about you are some of my favourites."

"Is that so?" he asked. "If you don't mind me asking, who exactly is your husband?"

"You mean you haven't guessed yet? I would've thought my talking about time-travel would have tipped you off." She looked at him, and her eyes were twinkling with mischief. "He's the Doctor, of course."

The Brigadier looked completely stunned by the news. "What? But Sarah Jane said…"

Luckily, River caught on quickly. "That Catherine wasn't his daughter? Yes, but she only said that because I told her not to tell anyone whose child she was. Both my husband and I have more than our fair share of enemies, and none of them would think twice about hurting our daughter."

Just then, Catherine came clattering back down the stairs, dragging her bag along behind her.

"I'm ready, Mummy!" she called out. River got to her feet, pasting a smile onto her face, where there had been nothing but pain and fear moments earlier.

"Alright, my love, let's go then." she said warmly, before turning back to the other two adults for a moment. "We really must do this again some time - only with something a bit stronger than tea." she said, giving them a wink as she collected her daughter in her arms.

Before the Brigadier or Sarah Jane could even give a reply, though, both mother and daughter vanished with a _pop_ and a burst of electricity.

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It was bedtime in the Song household, and Catherine Amelia Song had been wanting to ask her Mummy something all day. Her mummy had explained to her earlier what had happened to her grandparents, which was why she was so sad today. But there was still one thing that she didn't understand…

"Mummy, why can't we just go and visit Nan and Granddad?" she asked, confused.

"Because, sweetheart. I already told you - the timelines around New York are already unstable enough as it is, if we were to go back it could shatter the planet."

That still didn't make sense to her, but she let it go for the moment.

"Now then," River said, looking down at her daughter. "How about a new story for bedtime, hmm?"

Catherine nodded eagerly, clutching her stuffed Adipose just a little bit tighter.

"Chapter One." River cleared her throat and smiled down at her daughter before beginning to read. She could already feel the lump forming in her throat from her unshed tears, but she was determined to make it through this story, at least.

"It was the last week of the summer holidays, and Kate was in a temper. She banged around the kitchen until her mother told her to stop…"

 **A/N~ I'm so sorry that this update is so late! I had graduation to deal with, and then we were on vacation for a week, and now I'm moving, so I've been frantically packing for the last few days…. But enough excuses. I made this chapter much longer than usual, so hopefully that helps to make up for my negligence.**

 **Thank you to Mermaid1108, KirkSauber, WonderfulWhovian, and Bumblebee4264 for the reviews! They are much appreciated!**


	11. The Companion Room

**A/N~ Hello, sweeties! Just a quick note here - because Catherine is still young (she just turned five) she thinks of the TARDIS and her Grandmother as being separate beings. The TARDIS is the actual ship that communicates through hums and** _ **wheeze-groans**_ **, and her Grandmother is the one that will occasionally communicate telepathically.**

 _Catherine's P.O.V._

I was staying on the TARDIS with Mummy and Daddy for a bit. I had been watching _Frozen_ \- the version with the Caulfraxians and in anti-gravity - but then I got bored. I decided to go exploring for a bit, to see what sorts of rooms there were. Mummy had told me not to go running off without her, but she was writing something and Daddy said not to bother her. So I decided to do it anyway.

I started to walk around, looking at all the rooms. Daddy said that the TARDIS was infinite, but I thought he was just being silly again. He does that a lot. Like when he says that bow ties are cool, or tries to get Mummy and I to eat fish custard. I passed by all of the rooms that I already knew - my bedroom, the console room, the library, the kitchen, and the wardrobe - but I occasionally stopped inside of rooms. There was one that had a _huge_ telescope in it, one that had a big swimming pool in it, and _loads_ more! I got so excited that I stopped paying attention to where I was going.

Finally, I got bored of looking at all of the rooms. I wanted to go back to the movie room and finish watching _Frozen_. That's when I realized something - one of my biggest fears had come true.

I was lost in the TARDIS.

Before I completely lost it, the Old Girl gave a soothing hum, and then Grandmother spoke to me.

 _Relax, my angel._ She said. _I will show you the way._

Then the lights dimmed, except for the ones in the corridor to my left.

 _Follow the lights, child. They will take you to your father._

So I did. After that first left, there was a second right, then a third left before going straight ahead. Then the lights led me under a staircase, past the bins, and then they stopped outside of the fifth door on the left.

I stopped, taking a moment to look over the door. Daddy always warned me to be careful on the TARDIS, because there were some rooms that were dangerous for me to go into.

I examined the door carefully. It looked like just a regular door - big and wooden, with a big lock on it. But it was unlocked right now. So I went inside.

The room was rather dark, with a light shining in the back of the room. The front of it was all shelves, stuffed with all kinds of things. I only saw some of them - I was too short to see up high, and I wanted to see the light in back, 'cause that's where Daddy probably was.

There was a blue star made out of fabric, an old radio, several hat boxes…. I squealed with delight when I saw the most prettiest dress ever! It was on a clothing mannequin, and had a long white skirt that fell to the floor, with a poofy bodice and poofy sleeves until the elbows, where it became tight once more. I looked at it for a minute longer, before moving on. Soon I saw more clothes - a bomber jacket that was covered in pins, and several other random pieces of clothing. Then I found something very cool - a crystal ball! Mummy had shown me one before, on the planet Ar'ni. She said that if you looked into one, sometimes you could see the future.

So I did. Only instead of seeing the future, I saw three women. One of them was very pretty, and had long auburn hair, but the other two were terrifying. I screamed as I backed up, then screamed louder when I bumped into something. I spun around to see that it was just Daddy. He scooped me up into his arms, and I buried my head in his shoulder.

"Hey, sweetheart." Daddy said softly. "What's the matter?"

I was so scared, I couldn't even reply, I just pointed at the ball. I felt Daddy tense up when he noticed where I was pointing, and then he started stroking my hair as he carried me back to where he had been before.

"Oh, Mira, I'm sorry sweetheart. Those creatures are a nasty piece of work, aren't they?" he asked me.

I nodded, but then I realized what he had called me. I could feel my face scrunching up in confusion. I knew that he had called me that before, but I had never understood why.

"Daddy, why do you call me that?"

He looked confused for a moment before he understood. "Why do I call you Mira?" he clarified, and I nodded. "Because, sweetheart, it's short for your Gallifreyan name. Like how Sarah is short for Sarah Jane."

Daddy went to sit at the desk, and sat me down on his lap. There was all kinds of things on the desk, like pictures and clothes and books, and even a little TARDIS! Then I recognized one of the people in the pictures.

"Or like how Amy is short for Amelia?" I asked, but then I felt bad about it because Daddy looked sad. So I started to look around the rest of the room.

Then my eyes landed on a wall of drawings, and I climbed off of Daddy's lap to go and look at them.

They were all very pretty, and most of them were of people, except for a few. I recognized some of them - pictures of Mummy, Aunt Sarah Jane, Aunt Jenny and Vastra, K-9, Nan and Granddad… but other ones I didn't know. Like one of a blonde girl in a pink shirt with glowing yellow eyes, or of a big head in a jar. Or of a girl in a green shirt with a blonde ponytail, or a dark skinned woman in a red jacket. There was one of a older redheaded woman too - she looked like she was very bossy, though. There were pictures of the TARDIS console room, but it looked different. There was even a picture of a forest, but it didn't look like any that I had ever seen before. This forest had red grass growing everywhere, and the trees had silver leaves!

"Daddy," I said, "Who are all of these people?"

He looked over to see what I was looking at, before getting up from his desk and coming over to me. "These are all different people that traveled with me." he said softly. "There's your Aunt Sarah, and your Aunt Jenny, and Madame Vastra, see?"

"Yes, but who are the other people?" I asked impatiently.

"They're… old friends of mine." Daddy said softly. "They used to travel with me."

"Will you tell me about them, please?" I asked him, and for a moment it looked like he was going to say no before he gave in.

"Oh, alright." Daddy said. "Which one do you want to hear about first?" he asked me.

I pointed to the picture of the red-haired woman. "That one, Daddy!" I said, looking up at him. He looked sad for a second, but hid it behind a smile.

"That, sweetheart, is Donna Noble, the Most Important Woman in the Universe…" he began.

 **A/N~ Hello, sweeties! Just in case you couldn't tell, the blue star was from Adric's outfit, the hat boxes belonged to Donna Noble, the white dress was Sarah Jane's (from the Pyramids of Mars run), the bomber jacket belonged to Ace, and the crystal ball was what housed the Carrionites from "The Shakespeare Code" episode. It actually took me a while to decide which companions I would highlight, and a considerable amount of research went into it, so I hope that you all approve!**

 **This chapter was originally going to be about Catherine helping the Doctor to mourn the Ponds, but she wanted to do something else instead….**

 **Please review!**


	12. Meeting Someone New

_River's P.O.V._

The Doctor kissed our daughter's forehead once more before standing up. It had been several weeks now since Manhattan, and a bit longer than that since Catherine turned five. Now, the Doctor had finally agreed to leave us for long enough to at least go and get her birthday present. He still wouldn't tell me what it was, which meant that it was most likely one of two things - something he thought that I might not approve of, or something that I would definitely never approve of.

"Are you two sure that you'll be alright?" he asked us again. I just rolled my eyes.

"Sweetie, our answer hasn't changed since the last time that you asked us that two minutes ago." I told him.

"It was not two minutes ago!" he protested.

"You're right." I conceded, and he looked smug for a moment before I said, "It was two minutes and forty-one seconds… forty-three, forty-four…"

"Oh fine." my husband said, pouting up at me before standing back up and pulling me into another hug. "I just worry about you…"

"We'll be fine, my love." I told him, giving him a chaste kiss. "Besides, you'll be back again as soon as possible, right?" I gave him a look.

"Of course I will, River!" he said, sounding appalled. "How could you even -"

I cut him off before he could finish the question. "Fourteen years, sweetie." I reminded him.

The Doctor rolled his eyes at me, but didn't bother with trying to argue the point with me any more.

He started to walk over to the TARDIS, but stopped and spun back around to look at us again.

"I'll be back before you even know it." he promised.

I smiled at him, pulling our daughter into a tight hug. "We know, sweetie." I told him.

And with that, he hopped into the TARDIS, and we watched the Old Girl dematerialize.

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He hadn't moved for so long.

After he had…. had done it… he did nothing. Regenerated, yes, but that was it. Didn't even know what his new face looked like yet. Hopefully it was horrific - at least then it would accurately display the monster inside.

It was the silence that was going to do him in, he decided. There were no more minds buzzing in his head, no more telepathic connection with the rest of the Time Lords.

There were no more Time Lords.

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The TARDIS had taken to floating aimlessly in the Vortex, hurting as much as her Thief was. She knew what would help her Thief, though, as well as help her. The Old Girl was a time machine - she could see the past, present, and future, particularly that of her Time Lord. Soon it would be time for their pink-and-yellow-girl, but he needed reassurance first. Reassurance that there was hope for the future, and that someday, he could be truly happy again.

The time-and-space machine gave a happy hum for the first time since the fall of Arcadia as she piloted herself out of the Time Vortex and landed.

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His head popped up as he heard the _vwoorp vwoorp_ that signaled the TARDIS landing - odd, since he hadn't been piloting her. The fact that she even made the noise at all was astonishing, as she hadn't made that sound since he had begun to fight in the War.

And even though he was completely fine with wallowing in misery until he died, that sound - that wheezing, groaning, _beautiful_ sound - did something to him.

It gave him _hope._

8888

 _River's P.O.V._

He was late.

 _Again._

He had left our house at Luna several days ago now, promising that he would be back within the hour. But of course, his driving was off as usual. I had no idea when he was actually going to show up, only that when he did, he would have two very angry Time Ladies to deal with.

Our little angel was sitting on the windowsill, her face pressed up against the glass as she waited for her father to appear. It had become routine for her to do this now - although the amount of time she spent there had gone down as the days went by. The first day, she hadn't moved an inch from her position, except to eat and use the bathroom. Now she only checked there every few hours.

"Sweetie," I said gently, leaning up against the doorframe. "He might be awhile, you know. After all, your father isn't exactly known for having the best timing….."

I was cut off by the _vwoorp vwoorp_ sound of the Old Girl materializing. Catherine squealed in delight as she raced out the door, while I followed behind her, shaking my head in amusement. I was confused when I saw where my husband had landed, though.

 _That's odd._ I thought. _He usually parks out back so that the neighbours don't come to complain…_

By the time I was even out the door, Catherine was already disappearing through the doors of the TARDIS. I laughed, thinking of how much she reminded me of her father….. Then froze as I realized something was wrong.

The TARDIS was a duller shade of blue, and was rather grimy looking. I sped up my pace as I called out, "Catherine, wait! This isn't the…."

I trailed off as I stepped inside the Old Girl to see a man in a leather jacket with large ears kneeling down next to my daughter. "... right TARDIS." I finished lamely.

The man - it took me a moment to recognize him as my husband's ninth face - looked at me in surprise. "Oh, not another one!" he groaned, coming stomping down towards me.

"I don't know who you are, but you should not be here!" he raged.

"Sorry, sweetie." I said, trying to edge around the Doctor to get to Catherine. "My daughter just got a bit excited….. She's never seen a police box before…."

"How do you know what a police box is?" the Doctor asked, narrowing his eyes at us. "This is the 51st century - police boxes haven't been used for centuries."

"I'm an archeologist." I said as an explanation. "Now if you'll excuse us, we'll just be going now….." I grabbed Catherine's hand and started to pull her out of the TARDIS, but the Old Girl had other things in mind. She shut the doors, and wouldn't let us out.

 _What are you doing?_ I asked the TARDIS telepathically. _Let us go, before he finds out!_

The Old Girl responded with the telepathic equivalent of a shake of the head and arms crossed.

"Mummy," Catherine said, "what's going on? Why won't Grandmother let us out?"

"Shhhh, my love." I said frantically, but it was too late.

"Grandmother?" the Doctor echoed, disbelief colouring his tone. "What d'you mean, _grandmother?_ "

Catherine turned to him, and before I could say a word to stop her, she blurted out, "Yes, Grandmother. Hasn't Daddy told you anything?" She looked up at me and rolled her eyes - which the Doctor _swears_ she learned from me. "Honestly, _companions._ "

" _Companions?_ " the Doctor spluttered. "I'm no companion, little girl."

Catherine didn't get it - we hadn't explained regeneration to her yet, and I had hoped that we wouldn't have to for a long time.

"Then who are you?" she asked, and I looked at the much younger version of my husband in a panic.

Either he just didn't see the look that I was giving him, or he just decided to ignore it.

"I'm the Doctor." he said proudly, and I nearly laughed. No matter what regeneration - other than the one that he never spoke of - there was always that need to perform, to please the crowd.

It was rather adorable.

What was less adorable was Catherine's reaction.

"Don't be stupid." she said, doing an impressive impersonation of Mels. "You're not the Doctor."

"'Course I am!" the Doctor said, looking insulted. "I'm the Doctor."

"Sorry," I said, trying to head off any actual damage to the timelines being done. "She must be confused."

"No I'm not, Mummy." Catherine said, and I stopped in my attempts to try and get the TARDIS doors to open, practically anticipating my daughter's next words. "He doesn't look _anything_ like Daddy."

8888

 _The Doctor's P.O.V._

I was furious, to be honest. All I wanted was to be left alone, to mourn my people in peace, and the TARDIS wouldn't even let me do that. Then these two came on board - a little girl and her rather gorgeous mother - and the TARDIS wouldn't let them leave.

Then she said it.

"No I'm not, Mummy." the child said, crossing her arms over her chest. "He doesn't look _anything_ like Daddy."

I froze, and the woman spun around from where she had been trying to force the TARDIS doors open, horror etched on her face as she looked at me.

"Did you say…. Daddy?" I asked, struggling to get the words out. That was impossible - Gallifrey was gone, there were no more Time Lords anywhere….

I bent down to look at the little girl, grabbing ahold of her wrist. "What did you just say?" I demanded.

She squirmed, trying to pull her hand away. "Stop it!" she yelled. "You're hurting me!"

That was when the woman - obviously her mother, judging by the hair alone - came over and yanked her daughter away from me, holding her tightly. She placed a kiss on the child's forehead, then turned to glare at me.

"What the _hell_ was that?" she hissed, but I was too shocked to care that she looked like she was about to kill me.

Because when I grabbed her wrist, I felt her pulse. It was fast, which could have easily just been her being scared, but I had felt something else, too.

I felt _her_ \- her telepathic presence, that is.

Tears threatened to escape as I looked at the two females in front of me. That little girl was a Time Tot - a baby Time Lord - which could only mean that her mother was, too.

"Doctor?" the woman asked, her anger turning to concern. "Sweetie, what is it? What's the matter?" she put her daughter down, telling her to go play. The little one smiled at her, before running off.

Then the woman moved closer, but when she moved to touch my face, I flinched. The hurt on her face was only there for a split second, before it disappeared.

"Where's Rose, Doctor" she said, and it took me a moment to process what she had said.

"Who's Rose?" I asked. "Actually, forget that. Who're you?"

She only looked even more concerned at that. "Rose Tyler." she said carefully. "Your… companion?" Judging by the way she said the word, this 'Rose Tyler' must've been more than just a companion.

"I don't have a companion." I said, brushing it off. "Never heard of any Rose Tyler, either. But you never answered my question - who are you?"

She looked at me with something strange in her eyes, and it took me a moment to recognize the sympathy. "You just came out of the Time War." she said, not even bothering to phrase it as a question.

"Who. Are. You?" I pressed.

The woman crossed over to the console and started pressing buttons, her hair going every which way. "Professor River Song, archeologist."

"That's not what I meant." I said. "Who are you to _me_?"

A look of pain crossed over her face, and she turned away from me. "I can't tell you. I'm sorry."

"I can take a guess." I said, and Professor Song spun around, a look of shock on her face. "What?"

"There's no way that I would let someone get close to me after the Time War… or that they would even _know_ about it unless they were special… unless they were like me."

She gasped as she felt his hand on her shoulder, and spun around. "What are you doing?" she asked.

8888

 _River's P.O.V._

I could see the pain in my sweetie's eyes as he looked down at me. But there was something else, too….

"I just don't want to be alone any more...," he said quietly, then leaned in.

His lips on mine were different than the one regeneration that I already knew, but he was still able to make me go weak at the knees.

But I knew what I had to do - and it was already breaking my hearts.

I pulled away from the kiss for just a moment, and looked up at my husband's face. He looked so happy, and I could feel tears threatening to spill over. "I'm sorry, my love. I'm so, so sorry." I whispered, before leaning in and kissing him once more.

I locked the last half hour deep in his mind, leaving him with only a lingering feeling of hope, and a hint of blonde hair as a reminder. The memory would be unlocked when he was much older, most likely the next time that I saw him. Hopefully just that feeling would be enough to set him on the right path - on his way to Rose Tyler.

When I let go of him, he was unconscious, and I quickly dragged him over to the jump seat before going to look for Catherine.

I found her playing in her bedroom - not that I was surprised. The Old Girl had a habit of keeping all of the rooms, and then just storing them away until the Doctor needed them.

"Come along, sweetheart." I said, interrupting her game. "Its time to go now. Your father will be home soon."

She stood up excitedly. "Alright Mummy!" she said, and I laughed as she nearly yanked me out of the TARDIS. We both gave the Old Girl a fond pat and whispered words of encouragement before she took off.

Not even a minute after the younger version of my husband took off, we heard the TARDIS materializing again, this time in the back yard.

I almost sighed in relief when my husband - my proper, bow-tie-and-tweed-wearing husband - was waiting for us inside. The first thing that he did was to pull me in for a long kiss, and when he pulled away he had tears in his eyes.

"Thank you, River." he said.

"For what?" I asked him, confused.

"For what you just did." he said, kissing my forehead. "For the longest time I thought that it had been Rose Tyler that had healed my hearts after the Time War, but I was wrong. Yes, she helped me to no end, but it was you who started that healing long before I met her." Then he looked sad. "And to think, I was so horrible to you when I was younger…"

I stopped him there. "You are forgiven, my love. Always and completely forgiven."

8888

 **A/N~ I am so proud of myself for how long these chapters are getting! Next chapter you'll find out what exactly the Doctor got Catherine for her birthday, as well as having Catherine learn exactly what regeneration is.**

 **Thank you to WonderfulWhovian, KirkSauber, and Mermaid1108 for the reviews! And as for the rest of you who are reading this, please follow their example. Reviews are the life-blood of authors.**


	13. Birthday Surprise

_Catherine's P.O.V._

I ran over and gave Daddy a hug as soon as he and Mummy were done talking. "We met a funny man, Daddy!" I said happily, then frowned. "But he said he was you. How could he be you?"

Daddy just smiled at me. "Oh, nevermind that." he said, bouncing on his toes like he did whenever he was excited. "Don't you want to see what your present is?"

I started to bounce up and down in excitement. "Yes, please, Daddy." I said.

Daddy pulled a large box out from behind him. "Go on, then." he said. "Open it up."

I pulled the lid off of the box to reveal…

"An egg?" Mummy said, surprised. "Sweetie, what did you -?"

"Not exactly." Daddy said, still bouncing. "Go on, Catherine. Pull it out."

So I did. And as soon as I touched the egg…

I gasped as the egg started to glow bright white. I closed my eyes, then opened them again as the light faded away and I could feel something moving in my hands.

I squealed as I saw the little white creature in my hands. It was curled up in a little ball in my palm, and looked like it was sleeping.

"It's a weasel!" Mummy said.

"No it's not, it's an Aqrolt." Daddy corrected her. "An Aqrolt that looks like a least weasel from Earth."

"What's an Aqrolt, Daddy?" I asked as I cuddled the adorable little thing. It was started to wake up, and its little mouth stretched open in a great big yawn.

"The Aqrolts are a shape-shifting race," Daddy said, sitting down at the kitchen table while he explained. "They bond with the first person who touches them, and will turn into the shape of the creature that suits their person. Phillip Pullman actually got his daemons from the Aqrolts - he just changed a few of the rules around."

The little weasel finished stretching then, and looked up at me. "Hello." it said, and I shrieked. I was so scared for a moment that I accidentally dropped it!

"Oi, watch it!" the weasel said, sounding quite cross.

Mummy picked it up and started to pet it. "It's alright, Catherine." she told me, before holding the weasel at eye level. "I'm terribly sorry about that, miss." she told it politely. "My daughter just got a little scared."

The little weasel fluffed itself proudly. "Well, good." It said primly. "After all, I am quite the fearsome creature. Now then, where's my person?"

I walked over to it slowly, still kind of afraid that it would attack me. "I'm right here." I said softly. It turned in Mummy's hands to look at me.

"Oh my goodness, you are so adorable!" she squealed, jumping up and down in Mummy's hands. "What's your name?"

"I'm Catherine." I told her. "And who are you?"

"I'm Rosaline." it said proudly, as it hopped down from Mummy's hands and onto the top of my head. "But you can call me Rosie if you want."

"Okay, Rosie." I said, starting to lose my shyness a bit. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes!" Rosie said, jumping down to the floor and then doing little flips. "I'm starving, actually."

"Right then." Mummy said. "Let's get you two some food."

"I'll help." Daddy said, getting up out of his chair.

"No, sweetie, I'll get it." she said.

Daddy looked at me for a second and we had a mental conversation.

 _You tell her._

 _No, Mummy might actually kill me this time. You tell her._

 _But she might ground me. Please tell her, Daddy?_ I finished off by giving him big puppy dog eyes like the dogs from Barcelona - the planet, not the city. He slumped his shoulders, and I grinned, because I knew that I won.

"River, we all know that you could kill me in a heartbeat - or worse, kill more of my hats - so please don't take this the wrong way when I tell you that you can't cook." Daddy said quickly, then he tried to hide behind the counter.

"What are you talking about, sweetie?" Mummy asked.

"River, you managed to set _water_ on fire before." Daddy said, giving her a look.

"Fine then." Mummy said, pouting slightly. "But you're sleeping on the couch tonight."

I laughed at Daddy's pouty face, but then I remembered what I had asked him before. "Daddy, who was the man with the big ears and the leather jacket?"

Daddy looked at Mummy frantically for a minute before he answered. "Well, Catherine, that man… that man was, ah… he was me. That is, he was me, but not _this_ me, because if he was this me he would've been much more handsome. And worn a bow tie! Because, you know, bow ties. Are cool."

"But how could he be you?" I asked, confused.

"Because, sweetheart," Mummy said. "Time Lords can do a special trick when they are about to die - they can create a whole new body for themselves, and they can do that twelve times."

I was shocked. "Is that gonna happen to me?" I asked, horrified. I didn't want to be someone else! What if that person didn't like my favourite dresses anymore?

"It will someday, sweetheart." Daddy said sadly. "But not for a very long time, alright?"

"Okay, Daddy." I said, and then we stopped talking about that and started talking about other things.

But I was still worried about it.

 **A/N~ Thank you all so much for reading this! However, I have to admit, I am starting to worry a bit that people are beginning to lose interest in this story. I love writing this character, and I know that at the moment its rather slow, but Catherine is only five right now. Things will start to pick up a bit once she is older - around eight, actually. Anyways, thank you to my reviewers - KirkSauber and WonderfulWhovian.**

 **Please let me know what your opinions on Rosie are - I like the idea of her, but I'm not sure if she'll be around for the long run.**


	14. Otters and Arabian Nights

**A/N~ Hello, sweeties! So this is going to be the beginning of a much more adventurous time period in Catherine's life - the only thing is, we're jumping ahead about three years to do so. So Catherine is eight now. Just thought that you should know that.**

 **Beta'd by the amazing** _ **mltrefry**_

" _What in the name of SANITY were you thinking?"_ River yelled at her husband. The TARDIS was currently parked in the Time Vortex, after having just left Peladon.

"It's not my fault!" the Doctor protested. River just laughed at him.

"This is _absolutely_ your fault! How could this not be your fault?" she yelled at him, her voice echoing through the TARDIS.

"How in the name of Rassilon was I supposed to know that I was agreeing to have Catherine marry their King?" the Doctor yelled back.

"Let's see, shall we?" River snarked at her husband. "Do the words, 'Don't worry, River, I've got this all under control.' ring a bell?"

The Doctor tried to protest, but River cut him off. "And then, when you tried to get her out of the arrangement, _you arranged her execution for treason instead!_ " the frizzy-haired archaeologist raged as she made her way around the console, hitting buttons and flipping switches. She gave the console a pat and a quiet _thank you_ when she noticed that the time ship had soundproofed the console room for the moment, so that their daughter wouldn't have to hear this.

"Well it would have been much easier if you hadn't been _flirting_ with everyone in sight!"

The groan that the TARDIS let out was nearly loud enough to drown out River's angry cry.

"Oh, that's rich, coming from you!" she exclaimed. "How old was she anyway, because she appeared rather ancient from where I was standing!"

"Look who's talking!" the Doctor roared back, and everything froze for - he honestly wasn't sure how long.

"River, I -" the Doctor tried.

"Get out." the Doctor's wife said, her voice deadly calm as she flipped the switch to materialize the TARDIS.

The Doctor paled, looking at his wife nervously. "What?" he stuttered. "What are you -"

"You heard me." River said, her voice low and deadly, with all of the flirtatiousness gone. "Get out. _Now._ "

The Doctor continued to try and stammer out an apology even as River backed him towards the TARDIS doors. "Riv - please - honey, you know I…."

Finally, with one good kick, he was completely out, and the TARDIS slammed the doors on him, before flipping the dematerialization lever on her own.

River sagged back against the railing then, just as Catherine came back into the console room, rubbing a towel through her hair. She had finally managed to wash all of the dye out of her hair that King Tarrol's servants had put in it. Rosie was curled up around her neck, like a living fur stole, even though she was still wet as well. Tarrol's servants had been very thorough in their desire to make everything perfect for their king's wedding… which was unfortunate for the pure white fur of the weasel, which still had a slight green tinge to it.

"Where'd Dad go?" she asked, looking up at her Mum.

"Out." Was all that River would say on the matter as she typed time-space coordinates into the controls. "You and I are going to have some fun on our own before going to pick him up."

"Brilliant." came the young the young Time Lady's reply, and Rosie perked up, lifting her head off of Catherine's shoulder. "Can we go see Cleopatra?"

River laughed softly, before shaking her head. "No. Cleopatra is really not as interesting as everyone says she is, darling."

8888

 _Catherine's P.O.V._

I gave Mum a look. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing more than the usual." was her answer.

"So… you threatened to shoot her for flirting with Dad?" I asked, smirking as I tied my hair back out of my face. One of the only times that I really hated my hair was right after I washed it, just because it always turned into an untameable mess.

"Yes." Mum said. "Now then, where shall we go?"

I thought about it for a moment, before smiling. "Anywhere… As long as there are no kings looking for queens."

Mum laughed. "Alright then. Let's see what we can do."

And with that, she pulled the lever that would send us out of the Vortex.

 _Meanwhile…_

"Riv _ah_!" the Doctor shouted. He was still in shock at the fact that his wife had just kicked him out of his own TARDIS. He crossed his arms as he stomped his foot, aware that he was acting rather childish but not caring at the moment.

 _Splash!_

He barely kept himself from cursing as he suddenly found himself drenched from head-to-toe. The Doctor spun around, ready to start yelling at the natives - because while normally he would have been a lot more accepting, he had just _literally_ been kicked out of his own ship, and the footprint on his chest was really starting to hurt. "I promise, I come in peace." he smirked despite the situation, glad that he had finally had a chance to use that line again. "I seem to be stuck here for a bit, so if you wouldn't mind...

But instead of finding himself faced with an army of natives who were going to kill/imprison/sacrifice him because he had disturbed a sacred ritual/landed on the sacred temple/angered their gods, the Doctor found himself face-to-snout with a family of otters. Giant otters.

"Well this is just brilliant." The Doctor grumbled, sitting down on a rather flat rock while the otters came closer, moving to investigate this strange newcomer.

8888

 _Catherine's P.O.V._

We ended up on Osiris, a planet in the Krenon system. Its culture was similar to the ancient Middle Eastern countries on Earth, so Mum and I decided to play around a little bit, and ended up with me wearing an authentic Princess Jasmine costume (from the Arabian Nights section of the wardrobe) with a scarf to cover my hair, and I even found a bit of gold jewelry for Rosie to wear. Mum wore deep green harem pants and a matching top with a bit of fringe, minimal amounts of gold jewelry draped over her, a scarf wrapped around her head to cover her hair, and a shawl covering her body. We both slipped on sandals, and then were ready to go.

We stepped out of the TARDIS, and other than the different species everywhere, we could have just walked onto a street in ancient Arabia. Stalls selling spices, fabrics, and jewelry lined the streets, and different species - most of whom were dressed like we were - walked around everywhere.

Everything went rather brilliantly at first. Mum found some pretty new jewelry and a brand new blaster, and I found some spices for Aunt Jenny, some new plants for Madame's parlour, and a new sword for Strax. Rosie was having the time of her life chasing little pink mouse-like creatures - although she was rather upset that she wasn't allowed to talk here. If anyone heard her, she might end up for sale in one of the stalls.

I was just about to bring my latest find - a gorgeous TARDIS-blue dupatta - to Mum when the street went quiet. Not a single sound could be heard other than the _clip-clop_ of hooves on the ground. Rosie climbed up onto my shoulder so that she could see, and I climbed up onto a lightpole so that I could see over the crowd, even though we were already standing close to the front of it.

What we saw next was bizarre, to say the least. A purple horse-like creature came parading down the street, with rich silks in jewel tones draped over its long neck and a golden bridle studded with diamonds looped around its antennae.

The man steering the horse was far worse. He was at least seven feet tall, with a huge, brutish frame covered in more gold than any one person should ever be caught wearing. He was scanning the crowd as he guided his horse through, as though looking for something. But neither the creature nor its rider were the bizarre part - that was the people that he left behind. Every time he moved past a young female or male - it didn't matter what species it was - they immediately broke down in tears, although they seemed to be tears of relief as opposed to anything else.

As he moved closer, I felt someone grab onto me from behind, but before I even had a chance to get scared, Mum spoke.

"Relax, sweetheart. It's just me." she whispered.

"What's going on, Mum?" I whispered back.

She hesitated before answering. "That -" she said, motioning towards the man on the horse, "Is the dictator of Osiris - Rwasti Verden. It appears as though he is making his rounds, carting off anyone that strikes his fancy to join his harem, whether they like the idea or not."

I gulped, suddenly very scared. Mum and Dad had never seen the point in hiding things from me - especially things about the cultures and traditions of different planets, so I understood the basics of what Mum was saying, and it didn't seem good at all.

That was when I noticed another familiar face in the crowd - or rather, another head of very blonde hair, mostly hidden under a purple-grey scarf. But she couldn't be… and yet… the hair colour flickered to brown, as if someone was using a perception filter. But because of the TARDIS, as well as Mum and Dad and all of our family's adventures, I knew how to see past perception filters. Which meant that my first guess was right. It really was...

"Jenny!" I called out, hoping that I would attract only her attention. Unfortunately, my next move ruined any chance of that. I completely ignored the potentially dangerous situation, and jumped down from my perch, running across the road to the blonde standing there. She turned to look at me, surprised.

"Catherine?" she asked, shocked. I smiled.

"You know who I am?" I asked, and she wrapped her arms around me in a hug. "I knew it was you!" I said, not waiting for her to answer. "You look just like the picture that Dad showed me!"

She only held me for a moment, before something grabbed ahold of her shoulder and yanked her back, out into the street.

"What is the meaning of this?" bellowed Rwasti Verden, and I thanked Grandmother for the billionth time as the TARDIS translation matrix took care of translating the language into English - as my Gallifreyan still needed _loads_ of work - for me. "How dare you disgrace me so?"

Jenny looked absolutely terrified - although I'm sure that my expression matched hers - as the dictator leered in her direction, tightening his grip on her shoulder. "Well well, look what we have here." he said, his oily voice practically curling between us, and as I watched Jenny's eyes almost… glazed over, as she went slack under the evil man's clutching hand. "I think you will be an excellent addition to my collection, my dear."

And then, as if some silent command had been uttered, Jenny stood and moved as though she was about to climb up on the back of the creature - I vaguely remembered that they were called Iriditte - that Verden had been riding.

Or at least, she would have climbed onto it, if not for Mum doing something incredibly daring and stupid - and honestly something I would have sooner expected Dad to do. She ran out in front of Verden, pulling his hand off of Jenny's shoulder. Even as he threw her down to the ground, I recognized the fierce light shining in her eyes - it was the same one that had been there before we had to make a hasty retreat from Peladon, our last stop. I couldn't help but feel a bit more hopeful after seeing it, though, because I had come to associate that look with the feeling of security and protection. That look usually meant that people were about to wish that they had never gotten on my Mum's bad side.

"Leave them alone." she ground out, and while those words may have sounded ridiculously cliche coming from anyone else, they sounded perfectly threatening when Mum said them.

Rwasti Verden studied Mum for a moment before smiling - which was honestly the exact opposite of a relief. "Very well." he agreed. "I will leave these two alone -" but with that he grabbed ahold of Mum, yanking her to her feet and causing the scarf to fall off of her head.

Everything froze, and that was when I remembered exactly _why_ Mum had made sure that we covered our hair. The natives of Osiris were always either blue-skinned or golden, with dark hair, occasionally red. And while the neighboring planets had every skin colour under the stars, every single planet in the area had barely anyone with blonde hair. It was considered a sign of ultimate beauty and grace, and those who were born with it were elevated to the point of worship.

Which meant that Mum's 'magical blonde hair' (as Dad liked to call it) made her someone of extreme importance here. Jenny and I were just lucky that neither of our scarves had fallen off.

Verden was the first to get over his shock, and he held onto Mum tightly, leering at her. "Well then, this certainly makes things easier." he said. "I was just going to have you executed for interfering in this most _sacred_ tradition, but now I believe that you will make a fine replacement."

While his words alone were enough to scare me, what happened next was something that I would never be able to forget. Mum's eyes clouded over, and all of the fight went out of her almost instantly. She just stood there with a strange little smile on her face. Then she did the strangest thing of all - she dropped the bag that she had had slung over her shoulder and said, "Yes, my lord," before swinging herself up onto the Iriditte, leaving room for Verden behind her.

"What are you doing?" I asked as soon as I was actually able to speak. But she didn't even seem to hear me. They were only there for another few seconds before riding off, and I would have chased after them if not for someone grabbing me around the waist.

"Let me go!" I screamed, turning around and punching them as hard as I could. "I have to help her!"

"Catherine!" Jenny's voice made me calm down slightly, but I didn't calm down completely until I heard what she had to say next. "We'll save her, I promise." she said. But what came next was what really pulled the fight out of me. "Who was she, anyway?"

 **A/N~ So here we have the beginning of a new era in Catherine's life. Please don't hesitate to review and let me know what you think. And thank you to WonderfulWhovian, Mermaid1108, and KSauber for their reviews!**


	15. Plotting

_Catherine's P.O.V._

"What do you mean, who is she?" I asked incredulously. "How do you know who I am and not who Mum is?"

Jenny's eyes went comically wide when I said the word 'Mum', and I would've laughed about it if not for the seriousness of our current situation. "Okay… I'll have to find the time to freak out about that later." she said, scooping up the bag that Mum had dropped with one hand while grabbing onto me with the other. "But for now… time to run!"

And we ran. I tried to push all thoughts of Mum to the back of my mind for now, and succeeded for as long as we sprinted through the streets of Marno, Osiris' capital city. Rosie had hidden herself in the folds of my scarf, so that she wouldn't accidentally get lost, and the familiar weight of my best friend kept me from breaking down before we were in the clear. We darted in between the different stalls and carts lining the streets, turning down back alleys and dodging between people like our lives depended on it - which, as far as I knew, they did.

"Jenny, stop, please!" I finally asked. Even I was gasping for breath at this point - even with my binary vascular system, it was getting hard to breathe. But I was still just a kid, and Dad always said that I wouldn't be in peak physical form until at _least_ my two hundredth birthday.

It was another few streets before we finally stopped running, and that was only because Jenny pulled me into a little room that was barely even visible from the streets.

Once inside, she finally let go of my arm, moving over to grab some food from a cabinet.

"Catherine, are you hungry at all?" she asked me calmly, and that was when I lost it.

"How can you be talking about food at a time like this?" I yelled. "My Mum was just _hypnotized_ -" because I had finally figured out why Mum had gone with that man in the first place, "- by that bloody _wanker_ and you don't seem to give a rat's arse about it in the slightest, you -" and then I let off with a stream of Gallifreyan curses - and I honestly had no clue what they meant, I just knew that they were curses - that I had learned from Dad's tinkering with the Old Girl over the years.

Jenny looked at me in shock. "Catherine Amelia Song, watch your bloody language!"

"You're not my mum!" I countered. "You let him take her!"

As soon as I said it, I wished I hadn't. Jenny physically pulled away, as if I had tried to hit her, and Rosie came out of my scarf looking really cross.

"Catherine, you need to calm down." she said, jumping from my shoulder and onto the tabletop. "Jenny didn't _let_ them take River - she sacrificed herself to save you. Which means that you need to get yourself under control if we want to have any chance of saving her."

I realised that Rosie was right, and I could feel my cheeks heating up in shame. "Sorry, Jenny." I said softly.

"It's alright, kiddo." Jenny sighed, then laughed softly. "Listen to me, calling you kiddo! I'm spending too much time around Uncle Jack these days."

"Who?" I asked, and Jenny looked at me as if she wanted to ask me loads of questions, but she was afraid to know what the answers would be.

"Catherine -" she started, then paused for a moment. "D'you… do you know who I am?"

"Of course I do!" I said, and she looked relieved before I kept talking. "You're my big sister, right?"

"Always." she said with a smirk, but she still looked sad. "You've never met me before, have you?"

"No." I admitted. "Sorry. But you've met me?" I asked.

"Loads of times." Jenny told me, and I smiled.

"So." I said, picking up Rosie from the tabletop. "How are we going to save Mum?"

8888

It took us only a few hours to figure out a plan - and the hardest part would be getting into Rwasti Verden's palace. It was several stories tall, with every entrance sealed and a constant rotation of guards.

Jenny had Mum's new blaster to use, because she said that I was still too young to be using it. I tried to argue with her about it, but she wouldn't back down. Finally, Rosie told me to just let it go.

The plan was to use Mum's vortex manipulator - which had been in her bag with the rest of our things, thankfully. If she had been wearing it, we would've been in serious trouble. We would use that to sneak into the palace. Then we would… Basically just make it up as we went. Not the best of plans, but it would work.

But first things first… We were going to need disguises. Which meant we had to go back to the TARDIS.

After making sure that the scarves were tightly wrapped over our hair, we set out. Rosie was hiding in Mum's bag this time, ready to fight tooth-and-claw if necessary.

Luckily we made it through the marketplace without anyone noticing us, but of course, nothing could be that simple.

"Where's the TARDIS?" Jen - I had started calling her that, at least in my mind, to keep her separate from Aunt Jenny - asked.

I looked around, then realised that I was too short to see much of anything. "Hang on." I said, before pulling Rosie out of Mum's bag. "Rosie, can you see the Old Girl?" I asked her, and she snorted.

"Not from down here." she said. "But give me a minute." Then she started climbing up one of the stalls, going from framework to the cloth canopy in a matter of seconds. From there, she jumped from canopy to canopy, going over every stall on the street. It took her about five minutes total to go all the way down the street and then race back.

"It's at some man's stall down the street." she reported.

"Thanks Rosie." Jen said, taking my hand in hers. "Come on then. We've got running to do."

It took us a few minutes to figure out how to get into the TARDIS then. Apparently, the man that owned the stall that the TARDIS was at had claimed it as his property to sell. Luckily, he didn't know what it actually was, nor had he figured out how to get inside. Unluckily, though, the price that he was asking for was too expensive for either of us to afford. So we had to figure out how to sneak inside.

Rosie ended up being our distraction. She ran around the stall, nipping at peoples' feet, stealing items from the different displays, and just being a general nuisance. Once they were sufficiently distracted, we made our move. We quickly made our way over to the TARDIS, and I opened the door using my key.

Jen smiled when she saw the inside, although it was a sad smile.

"What's the matter?" I asked her.

"Nothing." she said quickly, but I gave her a look and she caved. "It's just… I've never seen this TARDIS desktop before." Jen gestured at the bright and cheerful room. "I had hoped that I would know it, but I don't."

"What are the future ones like?" I asked, and she thought about it for a moment before deciding that it was safe to tell me.

"Well, I really only know two of them, but they don't look anything like this. One of them is all high-tech and metallic, and rather… dark and gloomy, I suppose. The other is designed the same, but it's a bit warmer looking." Jen said as she made her way up to the console, running her hands over the controls. "I like this one much more, though."

"Yeah, I love it too." I said, and the Old Girl hummed happily, before making two bags appear on one of the jump seats. Jen went over and picked them up before giving the console a pat in thanks.

"Right, let's go." she said, and we quickly left the TARDIS, making sure to lock the door behind us. I whistled for Rosie, and once she was back with us, we left the stall and headed for the palace. When we were still a good distance away, we found an empty alleyway to get changed in. By the time we were done, we looked the part to get into Verden's palace - Jenny was dressed as a harem girl, and I was dressed as a servant, since I was too young to pass for anything else. The last step in our disguises was to activate the perception filters that Grandmother had put in the bags of clothes, to turn our hair a dark brown colour.

"You ready?" Jen asked me, and I nodded.

"As I'll ever be." I decided.

"Then let's go storm a castle." Jen said with a mischievous smile.

 **A/N~ Thanks again for reading! And thank you to LapWolf and KirkSauber for the reviews!**


	16. In the End

_Catherine's P.O.V._

We managed to make our way into the palace without getting caught, but the first snag in our plan came when we ran into the first guard.

"Halt!" he said. "Who goes there!"

It nearly physically hurt me to not roll my eyes - the number of times that I had heard someone say those exact words was ridiculous. "I was told to bring her to the harem, sir." I said, keeping my eyes trained on my feet. Mum's bag was back on the TARDIS, so Rosie was hiding in my scarf again, and Jenny had Mum's gun hidden in the folds of her clothes.

"Very well." the man said, sounding almost sad that he didn't get to shoot at us. "Take her there, then."

"Where is it, sir?" I asked, trying to sound lost and confused. It really wasn't that hard, though - the palace was more confusing than the TARDIS could be!

"How do you not know where it is?" he asked suspiciously. "All who serve our great king know where the harem is." I gulped, getting nervous. We couldn't let him figure out what we were up to before we found Mum!

"I'm new, sir." I said coming up with a quick lie. "Today's my first day."

The guard seemed to consider my words for a moment, and I held my breath as I waited for his response.

Then he simply shrugged, and I sighed in relief. "Very well." he said. "It's down the hall, third door on the left, take the second staircase on the right down, then another right." then he paused, looking at me dubiously. "Did you get all that?"

I nodded. "Yes sir. Thank you sir." I said, then grabbed Jen's hand. "Come along."

As soon as we were out of sight, Jen turned to look at me. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"I… I don't know." I told her honestly. "This is my first time on an adventure without my family."

I realized my mistake as soon as I saw Jen flinch. "Sorry, Jen." I told her. "Not that you're not my family. It's just that I don't know you all that well yet, and this is my first time out without Mum or Dad…" everything was getting blurry, and it scared me for a moment before I felt something running down my cheek and realised that my eyes had filled with tears.

"Hey." Jen said, pulling me into a hug. "It'll be okay, I promise. We'll find your Mum, and then we'll get you back to Dad, too."

That made me pause. "What do you mean 'your' Mum?" I asked. "She's your Mum too, silly."

Jen looked sad as she explained, "It's like I said earlier, kiddo. I don't know Mum - this is the first time that I've ever actually met her. But you've told me stories about her - so many stories."

I was a little shocked. Mum and Dad had explained to me before how the whole 'reversed timelines' thing worked. Sometimes, we would meet people in the right order… but not often. But I had never really understood just how… _upsetting_ … it could really be.

"But that's enough for now, don't you think?" she said, her voice bright again. "Come on - let's go save your Mum."

Jen started down the hall, but I stopped her. "No." I said and she looked at me in confusion for a moment before I clarified. "Let's go save _our_ Mum."

8888

Once we finally made it down to the harem, it was a piece of cake to find Mum. She was the only blonde there, after all. It only took us a few seconds to spot her in the crowds - she was lounging on a couch made from green silk, being fed grapes by a slave.

The hardest part was next, though - breaking the spell that Verden had put on her, and then getting all of us out of there without being caught. I walked over to where she was laying, with Jen following along behind me. She looked stunning - but at the same time, not like herself. She was dressed in teal harem pants with a matching top that were covered in intricate silver patterns., and more gold jewelry than any one person should ever wear at one time - it had even been braided into her hair. That was the worst part, though - her hair. It had been straightened completely, and then pulled back into an elaborate braid, which was wrapped around her head. Then the rest of her hair - and they must have done something to her hair, because it was much longer than it should have been, even with it straightened - had been pulled back into a ponytail. I instantly hated it.

"Mum?" I asked cautiously, tapping her shoulder. "Mum, are you there?"

She looked up at me, but it was like she was looking through me - like I wasn't even there.

I knew that I would never forget that moment for as long as I lived.

"Yes?" she asked me politely, motioning the slave away. "Who are you?"

I tried to speak, but no actual words would come out of my mouth. Luckily, Jen didn't seem to have that problem. She knelt down next to me, taking Mum's hand in hers.

"River?" she said softly. "My name's Jenny, this is Catherine. Do you remember Catherine, your daughter?"

Her eyes were still clouded over and her expression was blank, but her lips twitched down into a frown for a moment before stretching out in a simpering smile. "I am sorry." she said, sounding almost robotic. "I think you must have me confused with someone else. I do not have any children - the Master has not been kind enough yet to give me the honour of carrying his child."

I stomped away, unable to listen to her for another second, and Jen followed me after another second.

"You okay?" she asked.

I whirled around to look at her. "No, I'm not okay! How could I possibly be _okay_? That… thing… over there isn't my Mum! It looks like her and sounds like her but it isn't her… and I just don't know what to do!" I started to cry, and was instantly mortified. I couldn't remember the last time that I had cried before this trip.

Rosie came out from where she was hiding and wrapped herself around my neck, flicking her tail against my cheek softly. She had been so quiet for once that I had forgotten she was there.

"It'll be okay." she said softly, her whiskers tickling my cheek. "We'll figure out how to save her, I promise."

"Rosie's right." Jen said, pulling me into a hug. "It'll be okay in the end, I promise."

"Can I get that in writing, please?" Rosie asked, looking at Jen. "I don't hear that phrase often enough.

Jen looked confused. "What phrase?" she asked. "It'll be okay in the end?"

"No. Rosie's right."

That at least made me laugh. "How do you know?" I asked, still sniffling slightly.

She just smirked at me. "Spoilers."

Rosie groaned, flicking her tail at Jen. "I _hate_ that phrase." she grouched.

8888

 _River's P.O.V._

I was trapped in my own mind. I was terrified - for the second time since I had regenerated into this body, I felt completely and utterly helpless. The only other time was when I had to stand my and watch my younger self shoot my husband at Lake Silencio. But now I didn't even have the reassurance of _spoilers_ that things would turn out alright.

I watched from the prison inside of my mind - which was almost an exact replica of my cell in Stormcage, only with no possible ways to escape - as I was dressed and made up like a doll.

"Are you serious?" I shouted - it was really the only thing that I could do under the circumstances. "That jewelry doesn't even match that outfit!"

"Get your bloody hands off of my hair. _Now._ "

"Well, at least they know how to treat a girl around here."

Rwashti Verden must have been powerful indeed to be able to get past my telepathic defenses, I realised. That was the only explanation as to how he managed to get me under his spell.

But I stopped shouting at myself once I saw Catherine and that brunette girl from the marketplace approaching me. For a moment, I just stared in horror at my daughter's beautiful blonde curls, which someone had dyed a dull brown. Then I relaxed a bit, noticing the perception filter that she wore around her neck.

She came up to me, tapping me on the shoulder. "Mum?" she asked, and her voice seemed to echo. "Mum, is that you?"

I laughed. "Of course it's me, sweetheart!" I said, so happy to see her. "But what are you doing here, darling? It's not safe in here!"

But my happiness was gone in a heartsbeat when I heard what sounded like a robotic version of my voice answer her.

"Yes?" it said. "Do I know you?"

I watched in horror as I watched the tears spring into my daughter's eyes. She looked like she was trying to say something, but no words were coming out. So the other girl stepped in.

"River?" she asked gently. "My name's Jenny, this is Catherine. D'you remember Catherine, your daughter?"

I laughed, although this time it was more of a laugh of disbelief. "Don't be ridiculous!" I said. "Of course I remember my daughter! But you're - oh my Rassilon, you're _Jenny._ " That information hit me like a tidal wave, and I fell back to sit on my prison cot.

I had heard stories about Jenny, of course, although it took a long time to get them out of the Doctor. He hated endings.

I was so surprised by who she was, that I nearly missed what my body said next. "I'm sorry." it said. "But you must have me confused with someone else. I do not have any children - the Master has not been kind enough yet to give me the honour of carrying his child."

I watched in utter horror as Catherine's face crumpled, before she raced off, with Jenny following after her.

That was it. I hadn't exactly been trying to escape from my mental prison before, but now I put all of my effort into it. If I could just overload the emotional centers of the brain, I might be able to…

I took hold of my emotions. For what might have been the first time in my lives, I let them all out - my anger at the Doctor and Rwashti Verden, my sorrow for hurting my sweet angel, my curiousity about Jenny and how she got off of Messaline, and my fear of letting my little girl get hurt. For the first time ever, I stopped hiding the damage, and let it all out.

And everything went black.

8888

 _Catherine's P.O.V._

I was still trying to stop crying when I heard Jenny gasp, right before a pair of arms wrapped around me. I turned around to see who it was, and…

"Mum?" I gasped.

She smiled at me with tears in her eyes. "Hello, sweetie." she said, her voice thick with emotion.

I wrapped my arms around her, smiling as I breathed in her familiar mix of jasmine, vanilla, and gunpowder… only that's not what she smelled like at all.

"Yuck!" I said, making a face as I pulled away. "Mum, you smell funny."

Both she and Jen laughed at me, and they laughed even harder after I made a face at them.

Mum stood up, letting go of me. "Hello there." she said, holding out her hand. "You must be Jenny."

Jen looked nervous about actually talking to Mum, so I intervened.

"Yup." I said. "She helped me save you, Mum."

"Well then." Mum said, giving her a warm smile. "Welcome to the family."

Jenny looked shocked. "What?" she stammered. "Just like that?"

Mum thought about it for a second, then nodded. "Yep." she said, popping the 'p'. "Just like that."

"But… you don't even know me."

That made Mum laugh. "Don't be ridiculous, of course I do. You risked everything to break in here and save me, a woman that you've never even met. My daughter obviously trusts you, and so does her companion. Not to mention the fact that I've heard a lot about you from my husband. Now, if you don't mind, please hand me that gun."

Jen looked at her in shock as she wordlessly handed over the requested weapon.

"Thank you." Mum said, before she started to walk away. She stopped once Jen spoke.

"How?" she asked.

Mum looked at her, confused. "How? What do you mean, how?"

"I mean, how do you know that we've never met?"

"Because," Mum sounded like Jen's question was absolutely ridiculous - which, in a way, it was. "If we had, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

8888

 _Jenny's P.O.V._

It barely took us anytime at all to completely overthrow Rwashti Verden - in fact, all it took was a few well-placed bursts of laser fire for him to abdicate the throne. After that, though, we decided that the best course of action would be to get off of the planet as soon as possible.

Catherine was skipping ahead of River and me, just excited to be leaving this planet - and, I knew, excited by the thought that I would be leaving with them. And while I would be leaving Osiris soon enough, I wouldn't be leaving with them.

I was saddened by that thought, but I knew it was for the best. My time on the TARDIS was coming, but not for awhile. And while Catherine would be seeing me again soon, I knew that it would be awhile before I saw her again - and I might never see her again with that face.

Catherine came back to where I was, grabbing my hand and trying to pull me into the Old Girl with her. "Come on, Jen!" she said excitedly. "We have to go find Dad and tell him about you!"

I looked away from her, unable to deal with her childish joy for the moment, knowing that I would have to destroy it soon. I locked eyes with River, and she nodded, like she knew what was about to happen, and she was telling me to do it, no matter what the costs were.

Surprisingly, that was what gave me the strength I needed. "I can't, Catherine." I told her. Her face fell as she looked up at me.

"What do you mean you can't?" she asked me. "Of course you can, there's plenty of room."

"No, I mean it's not time yet." I told her. "Dad can't know about me yet, alright? I need you to keep it a secret for me - can you do that?"

She seemed to consider me for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, Jen." she said reluctantly. "I can do that."

I smiled, giving her a hug. "Excellent." I said, before turning to River and giving her a hug as well. "I'll see you soon, kiddo, alright?"

She nodded, and then River turned to her. "Sweetie, go inside, okay? I'll be there in a minute - I just want to talk to Jen for a minute."

Catherine nodded, giving me one last smile before heading inside the TARDIS and closing the door behind her.

I turned to River just as she took a deep breath. "So what was it that you wanted to talk about?" I asked her.

"I wanted to say thank you." she said softly. "You didn't have to help Catherine and I, but you did anyway."

That confused me. "What do you mean, I didn't have to help you? Of course I did - you're my family."

She smiled at that, and dropped the subject, instead switching to one that was far more painful. "You said that this is the first time that we meet. I'm assuming that that means, that the reason that I never actually get to meet you… it's because I'm dead, isn't it?"

I nodded slowly. River's breath hitched, and her eyes filled with tears for a moment, before she gave me a shaky smile. "Well then." she said. "I suppose I should start to get ready for that, then."

"I'm sorry." I told her. "I really am."

River pulled me in for a hug. "It's alright." she said, consoling me. "I'm just glad that now I'll have time to prepare… to get things ready for Catherine."

I pulled away then, feeling like I should do more, but with no idea as to what I should be doing. "I'm so sorry." I said, backing away. "But I have to go - I, I just can't." Then I turned and ran.

8888

 _The Doctor's P.O.V._

It had been a month or so since River had kicked me out of my own TARDIS, and I was starting to lose any faith that she was ever coming back for me. On the bright side, though, I had made friends with the family of otters, and they had adopted me as one of their own. I had even named them all - there was Ian and Barbara, the leaders of the otter family, and then there was Ace, Rose, Adric, Jack, Sarah Jane, and even little Catherine Jr. I had thought of calling her Mira, but decided against it. After all, that nickname was only for my little girl.

Barbara and Sarah Jane had just finished grooming me - a tradition that I had had no desire to be a part of, but was overruled - when I heard it.

 _Vworp. Vworp._

I looked up in astonishment as the Old Girl faded into view. I didn't believe it at first - I had dreamed about this too many times now for me to be able to believe that it was true right off of the bat. But that was until the doors flung open, and River came running out, her head whipping around as she looked everywhere.

"Doctor!" she shouted. "Doctor, where are you?"

I stood up from where I sat along the river's edge and started to make my way over to my own River.

"Hi honey, I'm home." I quipped, and she turned around to look at me.

" _Yowzah_." I murmured, taking in the sight of my wife. She was dressed like something out of _1001 Arabian Nights_ \- slightly shocking, though by far not the strangest thing that I had ever seen her in.

She rushed at me, nearly knocking me over in a hug. "Okay then." I said, slightly surprised - but not complaining - about what was happening. I had thought that when - _if_ \- River came back for me, I would still have to do a lot of begging and pleading to get back on her good side. "Right, this is… this is nice! Excellent, in fact." I wrapped my arms around my wife, hugging her tightly - which was what made me notice that she was shaking.

"River? River, honey, what's the matter?" I asked her gently.

"Dad?" I heard Catherine call out, and I took a second to rearrange myself and River so that I could see over her shoulder. I was surprised to see that she was wearing clothing similar to what her mother had on.

"Hello, sweetheart!" I said happily. "How've you been?"

"Good!" she said. "We met some really cool people on Osiris."

I racked my brains, trying to remember why that name rang a bell. "Osiris… Osiris... " then it hit me. "Isn't that the planet that was under the control of a ruthless dictator until he was overthrown by people who were visiting the planet?"

My daughter blushed at that. "Um… maybe?" she said weakly.

I relaxed slightly as the bundle of silks and curls that was in my arms - also known as my wife - finally stopped sobbing. I had no idea what had happened to cause that, but now wasn't the time to ask.

"Mira…" I said, my voice stern.

"It wasn't my fault!" she said defensively. "I swear!"

"So you and Rosie didn't get into any trouble at all, hmm?" I asked, and the weasel in question popped her head out from where she had apparently been hiding in Catherine's scarf.

"I wouldn't say that, exactly…" she said, trailing off when she saw the giant otters that had started to come up out of the river to investigate what was going on. "Umm, Doc… what're those?"

I jumped, startled, as Adric nudged at my bottom with his nose. "Oi! Cheeky!" I scolded him, pushing him away from River as Jack came over to investigate. "Don't even think about it, Jack." I warned the otter.

"Sweetie?" River asked me, looking confused. "What are you doing?"

"I'm defending your honor." I explained.

"From… an otter?" she asked.

"Yes!" I said happily, then realised what had just happened. "No. I mean… oh, shut up."

 **A/N~ Hello, sweeties! I think that this is the longest chapter that I've written for Angel in the TARDIS so far... although it did come to a rather abrupt ending. Sorry about that.**

 **Anyways, thank you to KirkSauber and Mermaid1108 for their reviews! Please don't be afraid to review, guys - they are like a breath of fresh air to the lives of lonely writers like me.**


	17. Rose

**A/N~ Ok, so let me just get this out there before the chapter begins: I do not bash other peoples' ships. Unless its just gross, like Wincest. And it may seem like I am bashing 10/Rose in this chapter, but I'm not. This is how I think Rose would react to the news that the Doctor has a wife that isn't her in the future, and that they have a kid together. I think that she would act this way because of how jealous she gets when faced with other companions. Like in School Reunion, or when she first came back to this universe, and was like "well I was here first" about Martha.**

 **Ok, rant time is over.**

 **Disclaimer:** Per the usual, I do not own Doctor Who.

"Come on, Mum, Dad!" I shouted, as I ran out of the TARDIS, ready to go to the carnival. It was shortly before my ninth birthday, and this was one of our many "family trips," as Dad liked to call them. We were going to a carnival on Flamarra, in the 26th century, and I couldn't wait! Dad said that they had games where, if you won, you could get a robot dog as a prize. I hoped that I could find another K-9 unit - that way Aunt Sarah's could have a companion of his own.

The planet was beautiful. It was covered in purple grass that smelled like cinnamon, and the skies were a pale blue, so pale that they were almost white. The fair around us was full of different species and languages, all looking for the same thing - fun.

"We'll be out in a minute, angel!" I heard Dad call back, and I rolled my eyes. Grown-ups could take _forever_. I started to walk away, looking at all of the booths.

Just as I turned around to shout at Mum and Dad again, though, I ran into someone, and fell down into the grass. I looked up, scowling at the person and ready to give him a piece of my mind, but the planet's twin suns blinded me for a moment.

Almost immediately after I looked up, though someone moved in front of me, blocking out the light. Then there was a hand in front of me, going to pull me up.

"Up you get!" cried an unfamiliar voice. It was very loud and hyper, but for some reason it was comforting. When I looked up, I was looking at a tall-ish man, with the spikiest hair I'd ever seen! And he was so _skinny!_ He wore a suit, but it didn't look anything like the one that Dad would wear to take Mum out for a date, or the one that he normally wears. This man's suit was brown and pinstriped, and he was wearing sandshoes with it.

"What was she doin' in the TARDIS, Doctor?" a lady asked, and I looked over at her. She was shorter than the man was, and was wearing jean trousers and a pink shirt. I thought she was pretty, though, and I told her as such.

She blushed. "Thank you." she said, giving me a smile with her tongue in-between her teeth.

"Now then," the man said, bending down so that he was at my height. "What were you doing inside of my TARDIS?" he asked.

I got mad. "That's not your TARDIS!" I said, putting my hands on my hips. "It's mine!" I knew that that was rather childish of me to say, but I couldn't help myself.

The man looked up at the girl in annoyance. She bent down next to him. "What's your name, sweetheart?" she asked.

"I'm not supposed to tell people. Dad says that names have power." I said stubbornly.

"Your Dad is right." the man mused. "But that still doesn't answer my question." he said, then grabbed my shoulders. "Now, why were you on my TARDIS?"

I knew that the man probably wasn't trying to scare me, but he was anyway. So I did the first thing that I could think of: I yelled.

"MUMMY! DADDY!"

8888

The Doctor's P.O.V.

I was inside the console room, waiting for River to finish getting ready. That is the one thing that I will never understand about women - why they take so long to get dressed.

"Come on Mum, Dad!" I heard Catherine shout from outside. She had been talking about this trip for days on end, wanting to know _everything_ about the carnival.

I laughed softly, before calling back: "We'll be out in a minute, angel!"

It was only a few seconds later when River came back into the console room.

"Yowzah" I muttered, making her laugh. But it was true. My wife was wearing a blue, white, and light green striped sundress with a deep v neck. She carried blue flats in one hand, and a tube of sunblock in the other.

"Well?" she asked, giving me a flirty grin. "How do I look?"

My only response was to grab her hand and pull her close as I crashed my lips against hers.

We might have stayed like that for an indefinite amount of time if not for the sound of our daughter screaming.

"MUMMY! DADDY!"

We broke apart instantly, our mental bond sending each other what we were feeling, and we were both feeling the same thing - pure terror.

Back when Catherine was one, we had sent her away to live with Vastra, Jenny, and Strax in order to keep her safe from our enemies. Now that we had her back, we were always extremely careful to keep her out of danger - at least as best as we could given our lifestyles. Now our worst fears might be coming true.

River and I raced out the doors of the TARDIS, and immediately were back to back, scanning the surrounding areas. Until River caught sight of Catherine, and ran over to our girl, throwing her arms around her. I moved behind her, picking up her blaster from where she had thrown it on the ground. Even though I still hated guns, I wasn't as opposed to using them when my wife or daughter was in danger.

We both checked Catherine over carefully, seeing that there wasn't a mark on her, before turning to see what exactly had terrified her so much.

That was when I came face-to-face with one Rose Marion Tyler.

8888

 _Rose Tyler's P.O.V._

I was so confused. First there was a little girl inside of the TARDIS, and now a man and a woman came running out. She ran over to the girl, pulling her away from the Doctor and holding her tightly, while the man pointed a gun at us.

As soon as he saw me, though, his face went pale for some reason.

"Rose." he whispered, and I looked at him, confused.

"Sorry," I said. "Do I know you?"

"Doctor?" the woman asked. "What's going -" she looked up then, and saw me for the first time. "-on." she finished, keeping her arms wrapped tightly around her daughter as she stood up and moved to stand next to the man.

"You're Rose Tyler, aren't you?" she asked me, but I was too focused on what she had called the man in front of me.

"You're the Doctor?" I asked quietly. "My Doctor?" The woman seemed to get a bit huffy at that, but she calmed down after a second.

"You're the future me?" My Doctor - my pinstriped Doctor - asked incredulously. "Seriously?"

"Oooh, he's you?" the woman asked the Doctor - the future Doctor, that is - excitedly. "He's pretty."

I decided to just call the future Doctor Bow Tie in my head, just to keep them straight.

Bow Tie snorted. "He's not that pretty - look at him, he's so skinny!"

"Oi!" The Doctor said, looking offended. "Look who's talking, Chinny!"

"Chinny!" Bow Tie said, outraged. They probably would have gone on like that for a while longer if the woman with the space hair hadn't interrupted.

"That's enough, both of you!" she said, and I took the opportunity to actually look her over for the first time. She was a bit more mature than I had originally thought, but still very pretty with tanned skin, big grey eyes, and a head of wild blonde curls. She wore a light green, blue, and white striped sundress with blue flats, and I rolled my eyes at the bit of lace that was peeking out from the top of her dress. My eyes went wide, though, when I saw the gun that the Doctor was still holding.

"If you're the Doctor," I said, pointing a finger at him, "Then why are you carryin' a gun?"

"Yes!" my Doctor said, grinning manically. "That's an excellent point! Well done, Rose!"

"Ah, yes." Bow Tie said, rubbing his hands together nervously. "Well, you see… it's not my gun."

"Then whose is it?" the Doctor asked, growing irritated at his future self.

Then, Bow Tie did something neither one of us had been expecting. He handed the gun to the woman next to him, while pointing at her like a child tattling to his parents. "It's hers." he said.

I was shocked. Since when did the Doctor allow companions to carry guns? Apparantly my Doctor was thinking the same thing that I was, because he grabbed ahold of his future self and started to drag him away, leaving me behind with the woman and the little girl.

"Sorry 'bout 'im." I said awkwardly. "He can be sort of…" I trailed off, trying to figure out what the best word would be.

"Rude?" the woman said, and I nodded. She snorted a laugh, muttering, "Some things never change."

We started to walk towards one of the carnival booths, where the little girl started to pull at the woman's arm, asking her to play the game.

"Alright, Catherine." she said, bending down to look at the girl for a moment - I assumed that she was her daughter, based on how similar they looked. They just stood there for a moment, staring at each other, before the little girl nodded and turned to play the game.

"Right. Now that she's distracted, let's get to it, shall we?" the woman asked, before holding out her hand to me. "Professor River Song. Lovely to meet you, Rose - I've heard a lot about you."

"Have you?" I asked her, surprised. "I didn't think the Doctor talked about 'is old companions at all."

"Yes, well I'm not exactly a companion… and I've been around a lot longer than most." she said vaguely before turning to watch her daughter, leaving me confused and thinking about what she had said.

What did she mean, she wasn't a companion?

 **A/N~ Sorry if either Rose or 10 sounded OOC, I haven't really written for them before.**

 **Thanks to KirkSauber and Mermaid1108 for the reviews! And just so y'all know, the more reviews I get, the sooner I update!**


	18. Carnival

_Ten's P.O.V._

As I pulled my future self off to the side, I heard Rose starting to talk to the woman who I assumed was my future self's companion.

Speaking of…. "Tell me, since when do we allow companions to carry guns?"

He looked flustered for a moment, before admitting, "Since never. They're still not allowed."

That confused me a lot. "Well obviously they are, or else _she_ wouldn't have one!"

" _SHE_ ISN'T A COMPANION!" He raged at me, then quickly calmed down again, fiddling with his bow tie. "And besides," he said quickly, as if hoping to distract me from what he had just said, "Companions have used them before, remember? Captain Jack, the Brigadier, even Jo Grant at one point…"

"Hang on a second." I told him. "What d'you mean, she isn't a companion? Who is she then?"

My future self sighed, and his shoulders slumped as all the fight left his body. " _Spoilers."_ he whispered.

I nearly growled at him as I ran a hand through my hair, getting more and more irritated as time went on. "Fine." I snapped. "Then who's the girl?"

This time, I saw something in my future selves eyes that took me a moment to decipher - and when I did, it terrified me.

I saw love. Not like the love for adventure, or the… I felt for Rose, but something else. Something that I hadn't felt for a long time - since before Gallifrey burned.

I saw unconditional love in his eyes - the kind that doesn't end with regeneration, or war, or anything. The love of a parent for their child. But to be sure…

"What's her name?" I asked him softly, my voice gruff. I didn't want anyone to overhear, especially not Rose. Because if Rose wasn't there with my future self, that would mean that something had happened to her, and that the unthinkable had happened. That I had moved on from her.

"Her name - her human name - is Catherine." he said, his voice equally low pitched. "But sometimes… sometimes I call her Mira."

That was when I knew he was telling the truth about her - about all of this. I had promised myself, long ago before Gallifrey was gone, that if I ever had any children, that I would use a name that could use Mira as a nickname. I wasn't sure why, but I had always loved the name.

"Alright." I said, letting the subject go - even though I was still having a hard time accepting it. "But tell me this - when did this happen? _How_ did this happen? We swore that we would never do that to ourselves - never start a family, not after Gallifrey. Especially not with a human woman, remember? The one adventure we could never have? The curse of the Time Lords? So explain to me what happened that got that rule thrown out!"

8888

 _River's P.O.V._

I was a bit nervous around Rose Tyler, to say the least. I knew how the Doctor had felt about her - how he still felt about her. He had loved her, yes, but that had passed with his regeneration, although she still held a special place in his hearts. I played with the ring that my Doctor had given me, on our first night from Stormcage - the trip to Calderon Beta. He had made it himself, with silver from the Medusa Cascade, and a white-point star from Gallifrey. He gave it to me that night, saying that even though he hadn't been able to propose to me in the proper human way, he still wanted to give me a ring. I wore it on a chain around my neck, both to keep it hidden from past versions of my Sweetie, and to keep a piece of him close to my hearts. Call me sentimental, but it is what it is.

"What's that?" Rose asked me, and I mentally cursed at myself. I knew that she had been perceptive from the stories, but I never realised just how perceptive she was.

"It's just a ring." I told her, waving it off. Because another thing that I had learned over the years - from talking to my husband, the TARDIS, and Sarah Jane - was that Rose Tyler also got very jealous if she thought that there was even a chance of someone taking her place. So if she learned that the Doctor had moved on from her, and gotten married… well, I knew that it wouldn't be pretty.

She looked like she wanted to question me more on the subject, but accepted the subject change when I asked her, "So how long have you been traveling with the Doctor?"

She smiled as she said, "Nearly two years, now. And it's been… amazing."

I laughed. "I know."

"I mean, I've seen so much!" she said, smiling at me with her tongue between her teeth. "I've seen werewolves, and Slitheen, and the end of the Earth, and so much more. And its just… amazing."

I would have answered her if Catherine hadn't come running over at that moment with Rosie running along behind her, looking amused. "Mum, Dad found a booth where the prize is hats… he won't leave it alone now." She said with a well-practiced sigh - another thing that the Doctor swore that she got from me.

I rolled my eyes at that, but got up anyways. "Alright." I said. "Lead the way."

"I'm coming with you." Rose said, standing up as well. "I want to meet this husband of yours, anyway." She said, giving me a teasing smile. "Bet'cha he's gorgeous."

I smiled, but was mentally panicking. I had no idea how Rose would react when she found out about the Doctor and I, and I wasn't sure that I ever actually wanted to know.

8888

We followed Catherine across the fair, weaving in between tents and through the crowds, until we got to where both of the Doctors were waiting for us.

"Rivah!" my husband shouted happily, bounding over to us. "Look, they've got fezzes and Stetsons and bowler hats and top hats and everything!" he grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the booth.

"Doctor, there's already an entire room on the TARDIS just for your hats – and don't try to act innocent, sweetie, did you really think that the Old Girl would keep it a secret from me?"

"Oh, but she'll keep your armory hidden, is that right?" he said, pouting at me, and I smiled at him.

"Exactly." I said, making Catherine giggle, the Tenth Doctor smirk a bit, and making my husband pout even more.

"Sometimes I wondered why I married you." He grumbled, although the amusement sparkling in his eyes said the opposite.

I covered Catherine's ears and filled my mind with white noise so that she couldn't read it, before whispering, "That's not what you were saying last night."

The younger version of my husband burst out laughing - although I could see that he was blushing slightly - while my bow-tied idiot blushed until his ears turned red.

"Oh, I can see why you like her." Ten said to my sweetie.

Unfortunately, we had forgotten about Rose Tyler standing in the crowd behind us. "What d'you mean, married her?" she asked, her voice breaking slightly.

"Rose…" my husband said, turning around to look at the shop-girl, whose eyes were filling up with tears.

"No, Doctor." she said stubbornly. "I want answers for once - none of the usual talking until I'm distracted stuff that you usually pull. _You_ got _married_? Whatever happened to 'the one adventure that you could never have?'"

"I don't know what you want me to say, Rose." My Doctor admitted, looking anywhere except at the hurt woman in front of him. "Yes, there was a time that I felt like that. But now… now I know more. I know _better._ And River… she makes me better."

I was amazed. I knew how my husband felt about me - most of the time, at least. There were some times when I doubted him. But either way, I had never expected him to openly admit his feelings about me.

"But… I was gonna travel with you forever…" she said, and that was when I decided that I had to intervene - if not for my husband's sake, then for Rose's.

"Sweetie, why don't you let me handle this?" I said quietly, before chasing after the distraught woman, making sure to tell my husband through our telepathic bond to make sure to keep an eye on our daughter.

8888

I found Rose sitting by a stand that sold _bshke_ , a Flammaran street food that tasted like candied almonds.

"May I sit?" I asked her softly.

"I don't know why you'd want to," she sniffed miserably. "Wouldn't you rather be with your husband?"

I tried to keep calm, reminding myself that I was dealing with another woman who loved the Doctor, but this one knew that she couldn't have him.

"It's just… I always thought that I would travel with 'im forever, y'know?" she said, wiping at her eyes. "An' so I decided that, I would be fine if he and I never… you know." she blushed. "But that was fine with me, 'cause we were still friends. But now…" she broke down into tears again, but I didn't need her to say anything more.

"But now you're worried, not because someone else is with the Doctor, but because you're not." I deduced, and she nodded.

"It sounds silly, doesn't it?" she asked, but I shook my head.

"No, it doesn't." I told her gently. "To be honest, I'm terrified of the exact same thing. The only difference is that I'm less worried about what will happen to me, and more worried about Catherine."

Rose looked at me fully then, her dark brows furrowed in confusion. "What d'you mean?" she asked, and I sighed.

"The Doctor…" I began, unsure of how to proceed. "He doesn't like endings, I suppose. We… we lost my parents recently, and he sulked for ages after that. He still can't even be reminded of them without wanting to break down." I told her. Normally, I wouldn't have even considered revealing this much information to someone I had just met, but this - this was Rose Tyler. I had heard so many stories about her over the years, that I felt like I had known her this whole time. "And when my time comes… I just hope that he will remember that he isn't the only one grieving."

We talked for awhile longer, about everything and nothing at all. About adventures that we'd been on with our Doctors, and about the times when we'd been separated from him and had to figure things out for ourselves. Granted, I had a lot more of those stories than Rose did, but still.

After another hour or two, Rose got interrupted telling me a story about when the Doctor first regenerated when there was a massive explosion from over where we had left the Doctors and Catherine. We looked at each other for a moment, before turning and running towards the chaos.

When we got there, there was no one else around. Several of the tents and stands had collapsed, and the fire from the explosives burned bright. I scanned the fire rapidly, looking for any signs of my little girl or either version of my husband.

"I don't see them anywhere." Rose said, but I wasn't listening to her. Instead, I was listening to a faint voice calling for help.

"Over here!" I said, pulling Rose with me towards where I had heard the voice.

We both started to pull aside the wreckage, although Rose had no idea why.

"Don't you hear it?" I asked her, but she shook her head no.

Finally, I pulled aside a smoking piece of wood to reveal Rosie, curled up in a little ball and coughing as she weakly called out for help.

I cradled her in my hands as we backed away from the wreckage, stroking her softly as she tried to get the smoke out of her little lungs.

"Oh, great." Rose - the human Rose - said sarcastically. "We can't find either Doctor or your daughter, but at least we saved the rat!"

Rosie looked at her with as much disdain as her little furry face could manage. "Excuse you, I'm a weasel, not a rat, thank you very much!" she said, her voice still sounding a bit hoarse from all of the smoke.

Rose jumped a little, her surprise clearly written on her face. "It talked!" she cried. "Did you hear that? It talked!"

I couldn't help but laugh a bit. "She always talks." I said. "It's getting her to stop talking that's the hard part."

Rosie turned to look at me then, flicking her tail in my direction. "Oh, shut it." she said, but without any of her usual bite. Then she looked at me, and I saw the fear in his eyes. "Have you found…?" she trailed off, too afraid of the answer to even finish the question.

"No." I said, unable to even look at her. "I -" I quickly corrected myself. " _We_ haven't seen any of them."

Surprisingly, Rosie perked up at that. "That's good!" she said, standing up in my palm.

"Good?" Rose asked, sounding surprised. "What's good about it?"

"Because it means that they're not dead." Rosie said slowly, and I nearly laughed at how exasperated she sounded.

"Then where are they?" Rose asked, and I could feel my good mood draining away.

"That is the question." I admitted, and we went back to scanning the wreckage.

8888

It was Rose who found Catherine, laying underneath a collapsed tent just a few meters from where we found Rosie.

"Over here!" she called out, and I felt my hearts skip a beat when I saw my daughter laying there in the ashes, not moving a muscle. I ran over, not even slowing down when Rosie fell off of my shoulder.

I skidded to a halt, dropping to my knees next to my daughter. The Doctor and I had no idea if Catherine could regenerate or not, and I didn't think that now was the best time to find out. I quickly searched for a pulse, and there was a terrifying moment when I couldn't find one. It felt like the planet had just fallen away beneath me, and I didn't know what to do.

Finally, I found one - it was barely there, but it was a pulse just the same. I should have expected that, just from Rosie's state, but I had been too worried to think clearly at the time.

When an Aqrolt bonded with someone, their life-forces were… connected. That is, if one of them was hurt, so was the other. They could also sense when the other was in danger. That was part of the reason why the Doctor had gotten an Aqrolt for Catherine in the first place, to help keep her safe.

"I've got to get her back to the TARDIS." I said, looking up at Rose. "Can you keep searching for the Doctors?" she nodded her head, looking resolute. I felt something scratching at my hand, and I looked down to see Rosie lying on Catherine's chest. I immediately felt guilty for not going back for her after she fell, but now wasn't really the time to apologize for it.

"I'll help look." she said, but her voice was still weak and hoarse from the smoke inhalation.

"Are you sure?" I asked her, and she nodded. "Fine." I told her, then looked up at the human Rose. "Take Rosie with you. She'll be able to help you with the search." I said as I picked up the least weasel and slipped her into the pocket of Rose's hoodie. "And take care of her." I finished, before picking up my little girl as gently as I could and racing for the TARDIS.

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 _The Doctor's P.O.V. (11)_

I woke up to a pounding headache and someone shouting at me. "Oi, Chinny! Get up! Come on, wake up!"

I sat up slowly, rubbing at my head, "Alright, Rivah, I'm up." I said groggily, before I realized that the voice that had been calling me wasn't my wife's. That got me to straighten up instantly, and I could feel my ears turning red as I scratched at my cheek.

"Ah, yes." I said, looking at the highly amused face of my younger self. "Right. Let's pretend like that never happened, shall we?"

"Sounds like a plan." he said quickly.

I looked around us. "Where are we?" I asked him, and he started looking around as well.

"I'm… I'm not entirely sure." he answered, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Actually… I don't entirely remember how we got here, d'you?"

I thought about it for a moment before I remembered. "Fire!" I yelped, and judging by the look of shock on the other me's face, I guessed that he was remembering as well.

"Wait!" he said then, sounding almost as panicked as I was. "D'you hear that?"

I stopped flailing about for a minute and listened. Then I heard it.

"DOCTOR!"

We looked at each other happily before shouting at the same time: "ROSE!"

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 _River's P.O.V._

I raced into the first TARDIS that I saw, but as soon as I got through the door, I stopped.

"Oh look at you." I said softly, forgetting everything else for a moment. "Still as sexy as ever." The colour scheme was more muted, with a grunge feel to it. The roundels on the walls were gone, replaced with smaller hexagon panels.

The Old Girl cut off my admiration of her with a frantic hum.

"Right." I said, shaking myself out of it. I knew that I had really only been standing there for a few seconds, but I still felt guilty for it. "Can you show me to the med bay, dear?"

The TARDIS hummed an answer before guiding me in the right direction.

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 _Rose's P.O.V._

Rosie and I had been searching the wreckage for another half hour at least before she heard something.

"I hear them!" she said, popping her little white head out from my pocket. "They're over that way!"

I ran over to where she was pointing, although it was kind of hard to tell because she was pointing with her nose. But as we got closer, I started to hear them too.

"ROSE!"

"Doctor?" I called out. "I can 'ear you, but I can't see you." I said, hoping that he could hear me.

"Rose!" I heard him call again, this time sounding much closer. I looked to the side and saw movement under one of the collapsed tents.

I rushed over and started to pull at the tent fabric, trying to help them out. I nearly sighed in relief when my Doctor came out, and I threw my arms around him.

I felt a little guilty then as I saw River's Doctor come out - I hadn't really been all that concerned about him at the moment. I was only worried about my spiky-haired Doctor.

"Where's Rivah?" he asked as soon as he saw me. "And Catherine?"

"They went back to the TARDIS." I told him, pointing in the direction that they went running. "Catherine got hurt - River said she was gonna take her to the med bay to -"

I stopped talking as he came up to me and starting running his hands along my sides.

"Oi!" I yelled, smacking his hands. "What the hell d'you think you're doin'?"

He blushed. "Sorry." he said. "I was just looking for…"

He trailed off as Rosie popped her head out of my pocket, looking slightly better than she had before.

"Hey there, Doc." she said, and the floppy-haired Doctor smiled at her.

"Rosie." he greeted her. "Can you sniff them out for me?"

She nodded, and he held out his hand for her to climb onto. Then he turned to look at us. "Right then. Come along, Tyler!" he grimaced slightly, shaking his head. "No, that doesn't sound right."

Without waiting another second, he bounded off, keeping a tight hold on the little rodent.

"Well then, Rose Tyler." my Doctor said slowly, and I looked over to see him holding out his hand to me. I smiled as I took his hand, and the grin that he gave me in return set butterflies loose in my stomach.

" _Allon-sy!_ " he shouted, and off we went.

8888

 _The Doctor's P.O.V. (10)_

We followed my older self through the wreckage to where he had parked the TARDIS… or so I thought.

Because as soon as we got through the doors, I saw the mug of tea that Rose had left on the jumpseat before we left that morning, so I knew that this was my TARDIS.

"Hang on." I said, stopping halfway through the console room. "How'd she get in the TARDIS?"

My older self stopped and turned to look at me in frustration. "Is now really the best time for this?" he asked.

"No, but I'm asking anyways." I shot back. "How'd she get in? I locked the doors before we left, she shouldn't have been able to get in at all."

My older self just smirked. "Spoilers." he said, before running off again.

"What?" I asked, looking after him. "Wha - that's not how-" the TARDIS herself cut me off with an angry hum.

"Right..." I said slowly. "To the med bay then." I pulled on Rose's hand again, leading her in the right direction.

We made it there, and then things got even stranger. Catherine was laid out on a cot, still unconscious. My older self was looking over the medical data that was written in circular Gallifreyan, but even more surprising was that River Song was doing the same thing.

I sidled up next to her and looked at her. "You can read Gallifreyan?" I asked her, and she smirked at me.

"Yup." she said. "I can write it, too. Circular and Old High." I raised an eyebrow at her, still trying to puzzle out just who River Song was.

"You won't be able to figure it out." she said absently as she moved around the cot, checking her daughter's vitals.

"You're so sure of yourself." I said. "But I'm clever, you know. I'll get it."

River laughed softly. "Of course you will, sweetie."

Then we both heard Rosie squeaking for a moment. River spun around, a look of pure hope on her face as she turned towards the cot.

Catherine was sitting up, or at least trying to, while Rosie sat on her chest, scolding her for even attempting to do so.

The next instant, she was practically buried under the mountain of curls that her mother possessed as River practically jumped on top of her daughter, pulling her into a hug.

"Mum…" she whined softly. "Get off me!"

River got up reluctantly, although she still stayed perched on the cot next to the little girl. I was still confused as to how she could even exist - Time Lords and humans were incompatible. While they were able to… mate, for lack of a better word, they couldn't produce children. The only way a Time Lord could have children was with another Time Lord. Which meant there was only one answer, although it was impossible.

After all, I was the only Time Lord left.

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It was awhile before Catherine was stable enough to leave the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS, but as soon as she could, the Doctors carried her out on a stretcher before placing her in the medical bay on board the other time ship.

Rosie watched over the youngest Time Lord - that is, the youngest Time _Lady_ \- as the adults said their goodbyes.

"Thank you." River said softly as she pulled her husband's younger self in for a hug.

"Well," he drawled, standing completely still as she hugged him, even worse than the youngest versions of _her_ Doctor had been. At least that one was used to human contact. It was almost sad, but she smiled as she though about how far he had come since then. "I'm just glad we could help."

Meanwhile, the older version of the Doctor was saying goodbye to one Rose Tyler. "It was lovely seeing you again." he said awkwardly, and she gave him one of her famous tongue-touched grins.

"Oh, c'mere, you." she said, before throwing her arms around him in a hug. He stood there, frozen for a second, before he relaxed into her embrace. "I'm glad to have met you, Doctor." Rose whispered into his shoulder, and he smiled.

"Well of course you are - I'm brilliant!" he replied.

"And oh so modest as well, sweetie." River said from somewhere behind him. The Time Lord pulled away from the pink-and-yellow human and wrapped an arm around his wife's waist.

"It was lovely meeting you both." River Song said, smiling at the other woman before sending a smirk towards the younger version of her husband. "And I do hope that we have a chance to get to know each other better." she purred.

Rose giggled slightly, as both of the Doctors blushed.

"Riv- _ah._ " the Doctor in tweed whined, and she sighed.

"Oh, alright, sweetie." she said, patting his cheek fondly. "I'll stop."

"Now, Rose, once we leave, your Doctor is going to forget what happened, but you'll still remember." River told her. "But you mustn't tell him, do you understand?"

Rose nodded, and River smiled. "Good."

They talked for a few minutes longer, before River and the Doctor went back inside their TARDIS. It was a few seconds later when the blue box started to disappear, and both the Doctor and Rose were amazed when it didn't make the wheezing, groaning noise that they were both so used to.

As soon as the Old Girl disappeared completely, the Doctor looked at Rose, having completely forgotten what had just happened.

"Come on then, Rose Tyler." he said, manic grin firmly in place. "Allon-sy!"


	19. Once Upon A Time

_Catherine's P.O.V._

I woke up that night in a blind panic.

Rosie was still fast asleep, curled up on a pillow next to me, and I knew from experience that waking her up would be a terrible idea. She tended to be very irritable if she didn't get her sleep.

So instead, I got up out of my bed and walked down to the console room. I knew that Dad would be down there, instead of in his room, since Mum was gone on an expedition to the Bone Meadows.

"Hello dear!" Dad said as I came down the stairs to where he sat, tinkering with the Old Girl. He was sitting in his swing under the console, and he looked even more like a madman than he usually did - his jacket was missing and his sleeves were rolled up, and he had big clunky-looking goggles over his eyes. "What's the matter? Why aren't you asleep?"

I fidgeted for a moment, feeling silly now that I was actually standing there. After all, I was a big girl - I didn't need to be running off to Daddy every time I got frightened.

"I had a nightmare." I admitted, deciding that I could hide behind my Dad this one last time.

He stopped what he was doing and just looked at me for a moment, before patting the spot on his lap in an invitation for me to come down and sit with him. "Now then." he said once I had curled up in his lap. "What was this dream of yours about?"

"Well," I began. "I was in a Library, and it was very dark…"

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It took me awhile to finish telling Dad all about the dream, and by the time I was done, he looked very worried for a moment. As soon as he realized that I was looking at him, though, he put a smile on his face.

"Not to worry, Mira." he said gently. "It was only a dream."

"But it felt so real." I protested, even as he carried me back to my bedroom. "It felt… it didn't feel safe."

"Well then!" he said cheerfully as he tucked me back in. "You should go to sleep! Because you're safe now, I promise."

He turned to walk out of the door, but stopped and sat down in a big plush chair instead. "Good night, Mira."

I laid in bed for a minute, just watching him. "Are you guarding me?"

Dad looked like he hasn't been expecting the question. "Well, yes. Yes, I am."

I smiled at him then, sitting up in my bed. "Are you really going to sit there all night?"

"Yeah, I promise!" he said, nodding rapidly as he crossed both of his hearts. "I won't budge from this spot."

I rolled my eyes, but I could feel my smile was growing bigger.

"Daddy?" I asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

Apparently it didn't work, though, because when he looked at me his eyes were narrowed with suspiscion. "Yes?" he asked.

"Will you tell me a story?" It was a silly request, but I wasn't ready to go back to sleep yet. My dream of a library filled with skeletons and carnivorous shadows had scared me more than I wanted to admit.

"Of course, Mira." he said, smiling at me. "What would you like to hear?"

I thought about it for a moment, before I responded. "Tell me a story about Amy and Rory?" I asked softly. I was never exactly sure what I was supposed to call them, seeing as how we had never actually met. So I called them by their names, but I had promised myself that one day, I would meet them. Then, I would finally know the Girl Who Waited and the Last Centurion.

Dad looked sad for a moment, before he nodded. "Alright." he said softly. "Once Upon a Time, there was a little Scottish girl who grew up in an English village…."

 **A/N~ So this was a very short chapter, I know. Sorry about that. But I wanted to work in one last bit of fluff before everything went all wibbly-wobbly, spacey-wacey, and of course, timey-wimey.**

 **Thanks to Liky and KirkSauber for their reviews!**


	20. Chapter 20

_Catherine's P.O.V._

 _Mum gave me one more hug before she stood up. "I love you, my sweet angel." she said softly. "Don't forget that."_

" _Why are you being so dramatic, Mum?" I said, rolling my eyes at Rosie, who was perched on the arm of the sofa. "You're only going to be gone for a week."_

" _I know." she said. "I'm just going to miss you so much."_

" _Come on, Mum." I said, grabbing her bag and Vortex Manipulator. "You're going to be late."_

 _She took the bag, but left the Vortex Manipulator in my hand. "Sweetie, I want you to keep this." she said, wrapping it around my wrist. "You know how to use it by now, and you might need it - that way you can go and visit Aunt Sarah, or Aunt Jenny and Madame Vastra while I'm gone."_

 _I smiled, throwing my arms around her in a hug. "Thanks Mum" I pulled away from her then. "Now come on, you're going to be late meeting Anita and the Daves."_

That was when I woke up.

"The dream again?" Rosie asked from where she was laying next to me.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair and wincing as it got caught in my curls. I had forgotten to braid it back the night before, so now it was a complete rat's nest. "Yeah." I said, sitting up in the bed.

There was a knock on the door, and then Aunt Sarah poked her head through. "Are you alright sweetheart?"

I smiled at her, picking Rosie up and settling her on my shoulder. "Yeah, Aunt Sarah. I'm fine."

"Alright." she said. "Come on down for breakfast - Luke is just finishing up the eggs."

"Yes Aunt Sarah." I said. "Just give me a minute to get dressed."

She smiled at me and shut the door behind her.

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It took me about ten minutes to get dressed, and I just gave my hair up as a hopeless cause - I'd sort it out once I got back home.

I headed downstairs, stopping at the landing to call up to Mr. Smith.

"Good morning, Mr. Smith!" his voice echoed back down.

"Good morning, Miss Song."

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I stayed long enough to finish breakfast and help start the dishes, before it was time to head back home. I gave Aunt Sarah Jane and Luke one last hug, and made sure that Rosie was tucked comfortably away before punching the coordinates into my Vortex Manipulator and leaving 13 Bannerman Road in a cloud of static.

8888

We appeared back home, at the little house that Mum had bought at Luna University after she got pardoned. Rosie climbed out of my bag as soon as the static settled, jumping up onto the table. She shook herself off, trying to get rid of the static that had built up in her fur.

"Rassilon, I _hate_ traveling by Vortex Manipulator." she muttered.

"Well you might as well get used to it." I told her irritably. "Because unless you know where to find a spare TARDIS…"

"Actually…" she said, the shock clear in her voice. "I might know exactly where to look."

I turned around to see Rosie looking out through the back window. "Hey. Look at that." I said surprised. The TARDIS herself was parked out in the back garden.

"Better late than never…" Rosie quipped, and I rolled my eyes. While I was glad to see Grandmother again, I knew that talking to the Doctor wasn't going to be anything even close to pleasant.

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I took the time to get a shower and deal with my hair before going outside, as well as to get dressed for - something that Grandmother was not pleased about , and she made sure to let me know. Although her mental scolding came much later.

I paused for a moment right outside of the TARDIS doors, just to take a breath and prepare myself for what was coming. Rosie took that opportunity to scale my pant leg, and she made it up to my waist before I picked her up.

"You gonna be alright?" she asked, and I smiled. We had both grown a lot since Mum had died, especially as far as our bond was concerned. Not too long after… _it_ happened, we had taken a trip to Weltara - the planet that my dad had gotten Rosie from in the first place. While there we had learned about the potential bond that we had - since Aqrolts apparently had slight telepathic abilities, we had the possibility of forming a telepathic bond along with the one that we already had.

"Yeah." I told her with a slight grimace as I lifted her up so that she could settle on my shoulder. "Piece of cake, right?" And with that, I flung both of the TARDIS doors wide open before walking inside.

I stopped before we even made it two feet inside.

"Grandmother…" I gasped. "What happened to you?" This wasn't _my_ TARDIS. The familiar orangey glow and organic feel was gone, along with any bit of happiness that had been inside.

Instead, it was like every inch of the Old Girl was in mourning. The lights had dimmed and been replaced with a pale blue glow, and the glass-and-tile flooring had been replaced with steel.

 _Talk to your father, my sweet angel._

So I went looking for him, with Rosie following along behind me. Luckily, the Old Girl kept me from getting lost too much, otherwise I would have never been able to figure out the TARDIS' new layout. None of the hallways led to where they used to, and even the rooms had a different layout. The library was missing altogether.

Finally, I found him. Dad was curled up in a ball on the bed that he shared with Mum. Or rather, _had_ shared. I already knew what had happened to her. A month or so after she left, and I had just arrived back home from a visit to Paternoster Row, the Dean of Luna University came knocking on the door. He had sat me down and explained to me what happened - or at least what they thought had happened. I knew though, that there was no way Mum would have willingly sacrificed herself unless there were absolutely no other options - or if it was the only way to keep someone else from being a sacrifice.

"Where the bloody hell have you been?" I yelled at him, ignoring the whispered warning that Grandmother was giving me. "Do you have any idea what happened?"

He was up off of the bed in an instant. "Who're you?"

"Seriously?" I asked him, putting my hands on my hips. "Has it really been that long that you don't even recognize your own daughter?"

He looked at me in shock. "What? You're not my daughter!" he denied. "My daughter's eight years old! She's all little… and curly hair… and she definitely doesn't carry a gun!" he said, pointing to the Alpha-Meson blaster strapped to my hip.

"Well guess again, old man." I said, glaring at him. "Because you're late - again."

"How late?" he asked, still seemingly in denial - and I really didn't blame him for that. In his mind, I was still the little eight year old girl who only saw the good in the universe

"Twenty-four _years_ late."

 **Thank you to Mermaid1108** (I am so so sorry) **and KirkSauber for their reviews!**


	21. This is cruel

_He was up off of the bed in an instant, pointing the sonic at me defensively. "Who're you?"_

" _Seriously?" I asked him, putting my hands on my hips. "Has it really been that long that you don't even recognize your own daughter?"_

 _He looked at me in shock. "What? You're not my daughter!" he denied. "My daughter's eight years old! She's all little… and curly hair… and she definitely doesn't carry a gun!" he said, pointing to the Alpha-Meson blaster in the shoulder holster that I was wearing. It was uncomfortable to say the least, but it was the only way I had to carry the thing with the get-up that I was wearing._

" _Well guess again, old man." I said, glaring at him. "Because you're late - again."_

" _How late?" he asked, still seemingly in denial - and I really didn't blame him for that. In his mind, I was still the little eight year old girl who only saw the good in the universe_

" _Twenty-four years late."_

8888

 _The Doctor's P.O.V._

I looked over the person in front of me,trying to reconcile the image of my daughter with her.

She was around one and three-quarter metres tall, with blonde hair pulled up into an elaborate knot on the top of her head, and a miniature black top hat with blue feathers perched on her head. As I looked over the rest of her clothes, I saw that she was dressed for Victorian times, in a white blouse, blue waistcoat, black cape, and long black skirt. Either she was just heading for an adventure in Victorian times, or she had just returned from one… which meant…

"Where did you get this?" I asked, going over and grabbing her wrist, inspecting the Vortex Manipulator sitting on it.

As she answered my question, I was reminded of something I had heard a lifetime ago - back when I was in pinstripes and trainers:

" _It was my Mum's._

"You know where." she retorted, crossing her arms. "Mum gave it to me, stupid."

That hurt more than I was willing to admit, but I brushed it aside for now. Because something wasn't adding up.

"You said I've been gone for twenty-four years." I said, and the woman - who I had realized was in fact my daughter after all - nodded. "That's not right. That can't be right."

"And why not?" she asked, even as a little white weasel came out from under the hem of her skirts. I smiled, bending down to pet Rosie, before she hissed and swiped at me, cutting my finger with her little claws.

I jumped up, sticking the hurt finger into my mouth and sucking on it. "Because, you look like you're nineteen."

"Yeah, I've aged well. So what?" she asked, clearly uncomfortable with where I was going.

"So… if it had really only been twenty four years, you would still look like you were twelve, Mira." I said, giving her a stern look. "So I'll ask you again: how long has it been?"

She sighed. "Ninety-eight years." she admitted grudgingly. But then she smirked - a smirk I recognized, and that scared me. It was the same smirk that my Amelia would have right before she would go off on a rant about something. It was the same smirk that… that River would get right before she pulled out her gun and started shooting - or before she would pull me into a closet and, well…

In short, that smirk always meant trouble, in three generations of Pond women.

"Where's Mum?" she asked me.

8888

 _Catherine's P.O.V._

"Where's Mum?" I asked him.

His smile was gone in an instant, and replaced with a tired look.

"Mummy's… gone, Catherine." he said softly, talking to me like I was still a Time Tot.

Dad sighed, and that was when I first noticed that he looked… different. A lot older than I was used to, even though he still had the same baby face that Mum had always liked to tease him about. It was like his age was clearly shown in his face for the first time. He was even dressed differently. Normally he wore a light coloured shirt, with red suspenders and a matching bow tie, and a tweed jacket, and his hair kind of fell in his face a bit, and was very poofy - like something an old man would wear, which really didn't fit with his baby face.

But now he wore a pale purple shirt under a lavender waistcoat, which was under a big dark purple woolen coat. His hair even looked different - it was slicked back, and looked all shiny. He looked like he was as ready for a visit to Victorian England as I was.

"How about I tell you a story, hey, Catherine?" he asked me, and I rolled my eyes.

"How about you stop treating me like a child?" I countered. He looked hurt, and for a moment I almost apologized. Then I remembered what he had done - he had gotten my Mum killed, and abandoned me for ninety-eight years. He didn't deserve an apology.

"Picked up anyone else yet?" I asked instead. "Drew in another pretty young thing, telling her how you'd show her the universe, all of time and space?" he hesitated, then ignored the question completely, which basically told me all that I needed to know.

"Why don't I tell you that story?" he said. "I'll tell you what, I'll even tell you the story of how I met your Mummy."

That caught my attention. I had begged him to tell me that story all the time when I was a kid, but he always said that it wasn't the right time yet - that he would tell me it when I was older. Now apparently I was old enough to hear it, and while that should have made me happy, it didn't. Because now I knew better.

I nodded, and he began. "Once upon a time, a very long time ago, when I was traveling with Donna Noble, I got a message on the psychic paper. It was a call for help, and it said,

 _The Library. Come as soon as you can. X_

Now of course, I was curious! Naturally, after all it's me! Call me the King of Curiosity - actually, no, don't call me that, that's a rubbish title."

I rolled my eyes, even though I was secretly glad that he was at least acting a bit more like he usually did. "Then what happened?" I asked him, sitting down in the large overstuffed armchair that was in the corner.

"Then, we went to the Library, of course!" the Doctor said. "And once we were there, who would appear but your mother." He smiled then, but it was full of longing and pain. "She was an enigma, wrapped in a paradox and combined with a contradiction… infuriating and endearing…" he sighed. "And absolutely _perfect,_ even if it took me far too long to realize it."

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It took Dad several hours to finish telling the whole story, but by the time he was done he wasn't even talking right - he was talking almost like a robot, like he was trying to force the words out.

"And that's how I met your mother, Catherine." he finished quietly, and I couldn't take it anymore.

"So you mean that the whole time you knew Mum, the entire time you were married, you knew how she was going to die?" I asked, and the sound of my own voice scared me a little. It was cold and emotionless, and hard as stone. "That is cruel. Even for you, that is cruel."

He flinched away from me, and for a moment I wanted to comfort him, but then I caught sight of my Mum's favourite heels - her ruby red pumps - out of the corner of my eye, and rage swept over me once more.

"I couldn't." he said miserably. "I had to keep the timelines secure. River - " he swallowed heavily. "Your mum, she… she made me promise not to change one line."

I couldn't even look at Dad - no, the Doctor. He wasn't my Dad. If he was, he would have tried to save Mum.

"I hate you." I said quietly. "I mean, at first I was just cross because I thought you had forgotten about me. After all, I've grown up on the stories! Aunt Sarah, Mum, Amy - you left all of them behind! But you always came back, as long as they were patient. And so I thought that that was all that I needed to do, be patient." I was up out of the chair and pacing by that point, while Rosie had stolen the spot I had vacated. I turned to the Doctor, pointing an accusing finger at him. "But you didn't forget!" I cried. "You purposefully left me behind - why? So you wouldn't be reminded of what happened?"

I didn't even give him a chance to respond. "Well guess what, old man?" I sneered. "You can go right back to not giving a damn about me. Because I am done. I'm not spending the rest of my lives waiting for you like so many others. Goodbye." I turned around to head out of the TARDIS, planning on stopping to collect a few things from my old room and the TARDIS wardrobe, when he called out to me.

"Catherine, please." he begged, and I turned to look at him.

"Catherine's gone, Doctor." I said quietly. "She left a long time ago. I'm called the Angel these days, not that you'd know that. After all, you weren't really there to find out." And with that, I left.

 **A/N~ Thank you to those who reviewed - Mermaid1108 and Guest, you guys rock!**

 **Please review! The more reviews, the quicker the updates!**


	22. Chapter 22

Donna Temple-Noble was leaving Henrick's Department Store when she saw it.

It was just a car - one of those ugly boxy things that she despised. But the _colour._

It was the bluest shade of blue that she had ever seen in her life. And while it made her smile for some reason, it also had another effect.

It made her head hurt something _awful_. Like the beginning of the worst possible migraine, it wouldn't stop.

And then there were the pictures that flashed through her head:

 _Tiny little blobs of fat, waving at her. A tall, skinny man - properly skinny, too, likely to get a papercut if you gave him a hug - in a blue suit. A giant wasp and flapper dresses. A woman with pinned up curls in a pub, wearing an old-fashioned dress. A green lady, covered in scales. A dark skinned woman. A little blonde girl, flipping through lasers. A woman with curly hair wearing a spacesuit in the middle of a library. Gas covering the planet. A big blue box…_

"Excuse me," a little girl's voice broke through the fog of pain. "Are you Donna Noble?"

Donna cracked an eye open just enough to see the little girl who was currently pulling on the front of her coat. She absentmindedly grabbed onto the girl's hand to get her off of her clothes - like she would with her own children. But the second that she touched the girl's hand, her head stopped hurting.

"Yeah, I'm Donna." she said, kneeling down in the middle of the sidewalk traffic so that she was able to look at the girl, ignoring the people who continued to bump into her. "Why?" There was a time when her response to such a question wouldn't have been so nice, but since she had had her children, she had become a lot more patient.

The girl gave her a smile that could've outshone the sun. "Because you're brilliant!" she said, and Donna could feel herself blushing. "No, really, you are." she said quickly. "And I just wanted to say… thank you."

"Thank you?" Donna repeated. "For what?"

That was when the little girl threw her arms around her in a big hug. "For helping my dad." she said softly. "And my mum."

Donna was confused. She bent down so that they were on the same level, and she nearly gasped when she looked into her eyes. They were so… ancient, especially for such a little girl. "Where are your parents?" she asked, her voice coming out a little more harsh than she had meant it to. Because this wasn't right. She felt like she knew this girl, somehow. But even if she didn't, Donna knew that she shouldn't have been there, especially not alone.

"They're gone. I live with my aunt now." she said. Her heart went out to the poor girl, who said it so matter-of-factly that her parents' deaths must have happened a long time ago.

"Then where's she at?" Donna asked. "You shouldn't be here alone."

"I know." the girl admitted. "I just wanted to say thank you, and to give you a present." she pulled out a hat box, and Donna took a moment to wonder where she had been hiding it. "It's from the Planet of the Hats."

She gave an indulgent smile at the little girl's imagination, and took the box from her. "Thank you." she said softly, and the girl gave her one last hug before running off.

8888

The Angel ran into an alleyway between the stores, taking a moment to mentally complain about short her legs were. She turned off her perception filter, and smiled as she became her one hundred and six year old self - in a nineteen year olds body.

"How did it go?" Rosie asked impatiently, and the young Time Lady turned around to look at her oldest friend. The little weasel looked irritated, not that she could blame her - she had left her sitting on a dumpster, after all.

"About as well as expected." she admitted. They had just returned from Victorian times again, but this time it had been several years before any version of Vastra that they knew - in fact, it was the first time meeting Vastra at all. They had run into the Tenth Doctor, along with Donna Noble - which was the entire reason for their trip here. To see how the woman who had done so much for the last of the Time Lords was doing. "She didn't recognize me, thanks to the perception filter."

Rosie jumped off of the dumpster and into the Angel's outstretched hand. "I still don't see why I couldn't have just come with you." she grumbled, and the Angel rolled her eyes.

"I told you," she said, exasperated. "If you were any good at acting, you could have."

"Oi! What's that supposed to mean?" the irate creature asked, taking a not-so-playful swipe at the Time Lady's hair.

"It _means_ that you can't go even a minute without talking most of the time." she said, as they left the alley to walk among the crowds again. "And if you could, then you could've come along."

Their bickering faded as they left the crowded areas, until it disappeared with a _pop!_ of static, as they went off on their next adventure.


	23. regeneration

Jeanette Harkness - known to everyone outside of Williamsburg in this time period as Jenny Song - was taking her daily walk into town when it happened. She had been worrying about when her sister would be showing up, and when she would be be able to take her damned stays off - when she heard a familiar popping sound. She smiled, and started to move faster towards the noise when she heard the worst sound imaginable, given the circumstances.

A gunshot.

Her hearts sped up as adrenaline rushed through her veins. She raced up the road before coming to a halt, damning her stays to hell once more - they weren't as bad as corsets would be, but were still bad.

A member of the British Army - one of the Redcoats - was standing in the middle of the road, pointing a gun at something.

She calmed down for a moment, before she saw something that sent her hearts into overdrive all over again - a mess of dirty blonde curls laying in the dirt.

"What in Rassilon's name…?" she began, racing down the hill as she prayed to every deity she had ever stumbled across that what she thought had happened _hadn't_ just happened.

Unfortunately, her original assumption had been correct.

8888

 _Jenny's P.O.V._

When I got to where the gunshots had happened, the soldier responsible was stabbing at something on the ground with his bayonet. I couldn't see what it was, it was moving too quickly. All that I could make out was a white blur.

As soon as I got close, though, the blur stopped running at the soldier and ran for me instead. I would have started to panic, if the little thing hadn't been cursing worse than a sailor.

"Hello Rosie." I said fondly to the little weasel as she scurried up my arm.

"Jenny." she said, and I could hear the panic and anger in her voice. "Catherine-"

The soldier cut her off then. "Missus Harkness!" he cried, standing to attention. "No need to worry, ma'am, just another bloody rebel that I caught spying."

"So you _shot_ her?" I asked, dropping down to my knees next to my little sister.

The man looked shocked, like he had been expecting me to be grateful to him. "She was a spy for the rebels, ma'am!" he protested.

"She's not a bloody spy! She's my sister!" I shouted back, trying to hold back the urge to kill the man who hurt my sister. I ripped strips off of my dress, and the redcoat paled - although whether it was due to shock at what I just told him, or embarrassment because he could see my petticoats, I didn't know.

"I'm so sorry, ma'am!" he said. "I didn't know!"

"Obviously not!" I yelled, trying to staunch the bloodflow. "Angel!" I whispered, stroking her forehead. "Angel, stay with me."

My little sister - although she didn't look all that little anymore - stirred softly, opening her eyes. "Jen?" she mumbled. "'At you?"

"It's me, kiddo." I responded, giving her a watery smile. "Just hang in there, Catherine, alright? Just hang in there, we'll get you some help." Then I turned to the redcoat who was still standing there. "Go get Mr. Harkness, and Mr. Jones." I ordered. " _Now._ "

He nodded, before running off.

She smiled softly, then winced. "What happened?" she asked, moving to sit up. "It hurts…"

"Shh…" I said, pushing her back to lay down again. "Stay back, sweetheart. Don't move."

It was a few more minutes before I heard the sound of hooves, and a familiar American-accented voice shouting, "Whoa, girl!" Then another few seconds passed before anyone came over.

As soon as their hands touched Catherine's body, I started to go nuts, clawing at them and screaming for them to stay away. I had no idea who it was, only that they were touching my little sister, and that I needed to keep her safe.

"Jen, calm down." Jack said in my ear as he held me back. "Calm down, kiddo, let us take care of her."

I nearly punched him - twice - before he got me to calm down enough to listen to what he was saying. "Jen, relax. We'll take care of things, okay? I promise."

"How can I relax?" I nearly screamed, spinning around to glare at him.

"Okay, okay. You're right." Jack said, putting his hands up. "But if you can't do it for me, then do it for her, hmm? She's going to need you to be there for her."

That was what actually got me to calm down. "You're right." I agreed, getting back on my feet and letting Mr. Jones take her to the carriage.

Rosie climbed up onto my shoulder again, and I started. I had forgotten that she was there. "She's going to be alright, isn't she?" she asked me, her voice uncharacteristically small.

I managed a weak smile. "Of course she will." I said, even though I didn't believe it myself.

We managed to keep her alive until we got back to the farmhouse, but it was a close call. As soon as Jack carried her out of the carriage, a golden light started emanating from her hands and feet, before quickly spreading to the rest of her body.

"Put her down, Jack!" I shouted. "We aren't going to make it inside."

8888

 _The Angel's P.O.V._

Everything was burning and freezing at the same time. I knew what was about to happen, but I couldn't process it for some reason.

I could feel the burn of regeneration energy start to flow through my veins as someone placed me on the ground. I sat up weakly, looking up at the people around me. I recognized Jenny, and one of the men was familiar, but I didn't know the other. Before I had a chance to think about it anymore, though, I was distracted by a golden glow that was coming from… my hands.

I stared at them in shock, turning them over and over and just studying the patterns that the energy created before I couldn't see anything through the golden glow that was now covering every inch of my skin.

I started to scream in pain at the feeling. Every cell in my body was dying, while simultaneously a whole new body was being created. Mum and Dad had told me about regeneration decades earlier, but they hadn't told me how painful it could be, no matter how many times I asked them.

Now I knew why.

Then the pain died down, and I looked around. Jenny looked relieved, while one of the men looked shocked, and the other looked terrified.

But that didn't matter, because then I got tunnel vision - completely focused in on a little white ball of fur lying limply in the dirt. I could feel my hearts speeding up as I remembered that Aqrolts only lived as long as their person did.

I stood up, attempting to rush over to where she lay, but I barely made it a few steps before I fell over. Jenny came over to help me, along with one of the men - he had short, slightly curly dark hair, and the bluest eyes that I had ever seen.

"I'm fine." I snapped, brushing them off. "It's just a bit hard to get used to, I suppose. New body and all."

I fell to my knees next to Rosie, hoping that she was just sleeping - even though I knew that that wasn't the case. "Come on, Rosie…" I whispered. "Don't leave me now."

She opened her eyes, then, and I nearly started laughing. I would have, too, if her eyes hadn't been golden, as opposed to their usual black. Her back arched, and she looked like she was in serious pain.

"Rosie?" I asked, picking her up. "Rosie, what's happening?"

She didn't have a chance to answer me, though, before there was a surge of heat and light around her. When it faded, Rosie wasn't there anymore - a small wolf pup was in her place.

The pup yawned and stretched before opening her eyes and looking over me. "I like it." it decided, before curling up in my arms.

"What the hell?" I asked, before I realized something. The pup was giving off the same mental signature that Rosie did.

"Rosie?" I asked cautiously.

The pup cracked an eye open. "What is it?" she asked me. Then she seemed to realize something was different - maybe her voice. It was a bit smoother than before, with a bit of a gruff edge to it. She looked down at herself before looking up at me in a panic. "I'm a mutt!" she exclaimed, her eyes comically wide. They seemed to get even wider, if possible. "And you're a brunette!"

That was when one of the men decided to chime in. "Why don't we go inside, kids?" he said. "We can get acquainted in there, and hopefully we can get you into some new clothes." the other man elbowed him for that, and when I looked down at myself I saw why. My clothes were about to fall off of my body.

"I know I was short before, but this is ridiculous!" I complained.

Jenny just laughed. "Look who you're talking to, sister dear." she teased, and I blushed. She was still a good inch or two shorter than me. "But Jack's right. Let's get you inside."

8888

"I think I'm sticking with Rosaline this time, Catherine." the pup said as she sat on my lap. I nodded absently, not really paying attention.

I looked at myself in the mirror, still a bit freaked out by the stranger's face that stared back at me. She had brown hair, pale blue eyes, and pale skin with a smattering of freckles.

"I always wanted freckles." I murmured softly, as a servant did my hair up.

"We'll find you proper clothes later on." Jenny promised me from where she sat on the bed. "But for now all we need is to blend in for a little while."

I gave her a pointed look, gesturing to the servant girl. She just laughed. "Don't worry." she reassured me. "They're hard light holograms. That way we can keep up a respectable appearance, without having to worry about gossip being spread."

"What are you doing here, anyway?" I asked her, now that I knew there was no real danger of being overheard. "And who were those men?"

"Well, we're here because an older version of you told us to - she also told me to tell you this, so that you would know to do it in the future." she began to explain. "And the boys are Jack and Ianto Harkness-Jones. Apparently we do something important for them in our future, because they were willing to come back to this time period."

When I looked at her in confusion, she rolled her eyes before explaining. "Gay marriage isn't legal, Catherine. Neither is being gay, for that matter - they'd be burnt as witches if anyone found out."

"I'm finished, Missus Harkness." the holographic servant said suddenly, turning and curtsying to the both of us before she left the room. Jenny blushed, and it took me a few seconds to realize why - the regeneration energy was still messing with my brain a little.

"Hang on!" I said, sending her a look. " _Missus Harkness?_ "

This time it was Jenny blushing. "Shut up!" she hissed. "It's not like that!"

Rosaline snickered as she jumped down from my lap, landing clumsily on the floor. "Then what's it like, hm?" she teased. "We're _dying_ to know."

"Jeanette Harkness is the British wife of American-born Jack Harkness, who came across the pond a year ago to join him after their arranged marriage." a new voice said from the doorway. I whipped my head around to see the man from before. He blushed slightly, holding out a red piece of cloth. "I brought you clothes." he said.

I stood up and walked over, with Rosaline following right along behind me. "How d'you know if it'll fit?" I asked him curiously, but Jenny answered for him.

"Trust me, Ianto is magic when it comes to clothes." she said.

I rolled my eyes, not really believing her. "Alright." I said, giving him a smile. "Thank you."

"Of course, Angel." he said, before shutting the door behind him. It was after he left that I realized what he said.

"Hang on - how did he know...?" I trailed off, and Jenny just smirked.

"He knows everything."

8888

"You were right." I decided as I looked over myself in the full-length mirror once we had succeeded in getting me into the clothes that Ianto had brought for me. "He's magic."

Jenny just laughed. "Told you so."'

He had brought me a red gown square-necked with flowers scattered over it, and an opening in the front to show off the pale coloured petticoats underneath it. "What's next?" I asked my sister as we left the bedroom, which she had said would be mine for the time being.

"Next… is the Revolution, sister dearest." Jenny said with a smirk,

"Oh lord." I heard Rosaline mutter. "This is going to end badly."

 **A/N~ hello my lovelies! First regeneration has finally happened, and I'm glad to say that I'm pretty proud of it. Let me know what you think!**

 **So I have an announcement: this story is going on hiatus for an unknown period of time. I will be going back through the Angel-Verse and rewriting everything - and I do mean** _ **everything.**_ **So be on the lookout for it!**

 **The first up will be the rewrite of Codename: Angel, and will be called "The Song of the universe".**


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